I am really starting to hate tv stations. Everytime I get into a new show, they go and cancel it. WTF! They cancel things like Tru, Wonderfalls, Angel and Firefly, but The Simple Life, and every other reality show goes into 3+ seasons? I don't get it.

I hope we get the six episodes on DVD along with some commentary on how they would have gone with the story if they had had the opportunity.

I don't know...

Rumor has that the WB wants to either bring back "Angel" or do another Slayerverse spin-off, and David Boreanaz doesn't seem interested in reprising the role of Angel.

http://www2.cinescape.com/0/editoria...5&obj_id=42759

Reality shows are cheap to make and easy to make a quick buck out of.

It does suck, but then again, Angel was a case where WB screwed up and thought they had something coming up that they were going to use but ended up not happening. Firefly, wonderfalls and tru were all just cases of bad night/bad time.

So what exactly was the point of being Tru Calling back this season, only to cancel it? To waste money producing 6 episodes? Nice

First the show improves throughout the season and by the end it's one of my favorite shows. Then we wait hoping it will be renewed - and it is! Then, the start of its season is delayed. Then it's cut back to a whole six episodes. The episodes are shot, the show is cancelled and there are no plans to broadcast them. This has to be about the dumbest thing a network has ever done. Which is saying a lot.

I guess we will never know the whole story (ala John Doe). This series had such an amazing turnaround during the the second half of the season last year, too.

This whole thing's a complete fuckup. While I understand the economics of everything, and I've been through it many times before, I'm really starting to get tired of this shit.

das

You're forgetting the myriad of British shows in season sets that have been released. Granted, it's not necessarily the same market, but they could make it work.

I'm not that surprised to see the show go; this is Fox we're talking about. After Firefly and Wonderfalls, I refuse to watch the network.

While it bothers me too, what don't you get?

A show like Simple Life or The Apprentice is cheap to produce and, for some reason, watched by millions and millions of people. This equals ad revenue.

Tru Calling, Firefly, Wonderfalls, etc are expensive to produce and watched by far fewer people. Less revenue.

TV is a business, nothing more.

However, I think most networks are being very shortsighted, going for yearly profits rather than net profits.

If the low-rated "Buffy" was cancelled, they never would have seen the profit from things like the DVD sales and syndication, not to mention "Angel." Similar stories with "Seinfeld" and "The X-Files."

But apparently the quick buck is more important.

I do hold hope that "reality" TV will die off within a few years and we can move back to some quality writing and acting that millions of people enjoy. There have been some encouraging signs, but I'm sure the first death on one of these shows will knock the nail in the coffin.

I'm not the first one to say this in this thread, but let me repeat: This is the stupidest shit I've ever seen Fox pull, and that's saying a lot. Forgetting everything else about Tru Calling for a moment, let's get this clear: Fox is in almost as much trouble as NBC. They are seriously screwed as far as this season goes.

Method and Red: Failure, cancelled.
Quintuplets: Sub-par ratings, but Fox renews for entire season. No way this makes it to season 2.
Casino: Utter disaster, cancelled.
Jury: Utter disaster, cancelled.
North Shore: Pretty bad ratings, moved to Thursdays at 9 against CSI. Yeah, that'll last two episodes.
Next Great Champ: Complete disaster, moved to a small cable network.

So where the fuck is Fox getting the idea that they have a crapload of shows that are successful and no longer need Tru Calling? Because of what's coming?

My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss: This is gonna bomb like Joe Millionaire 2.
The Swan 2: I can only pray it'll bomb... Probably won't be a big drop-off from last season though.
The Obnoxious Billionaire: This will die fast. Apprentice is dying slowly and whatever that show with Mark Cuban was a ratings mess. This is doa.
House: This one could do okay. It's 50/50.

Hell, I was looking at the Fox 2004 schedule to make this up, and it looks like Fox has shelved "The Partner". Bernie Mac is on hiatus because of "exhaustion". Arrested Development is safe thanks to the Emmy, but let's face it, if ratings don't go up, all the emmy's in the world won't save it.

The only things Fox has going for it are the Simpsons, 24, King of the Hill (No more thanks to the lovely 7pm timeslot) That 70's Show, The OC (The Thursday slot is going to hurt it badly) and... Uhh... Cops and America's Most Wanted? Oh, how could I forget. What 50% of Fox's season will be come January: AMERICAN IDOL! OMG!!!!!

I repeat, why the fuck do they cancel this show? You have Eliza Dushku, a very notable actress, Jason Priestly... A good show that's ratings were improving quite a bit as the season concluded. A show that started out as a dartboard for critics and concluded the season as what most considered a pretty good show.

Why do I even ask why when it comes to Fox at this point though? Harsh Realm, Brimstone, Freakylinks, Lone Gunmen, Firefly, John Doe, Wonderfalls and all the other shows I'm forgetting. Why must Fox order some of the highest quality shows? I always swear never again, but then they get their hands on another excellent sci-fi show, of which there are so few on network tv these days. Fuck Fox and the people in charge. May reality TV take their network straight to sixth place once AI starts to fade away.

I wrote a long defense for fox, but who cares. simple answer is money ran dry and no one wanted to pick it up. So it died. Happens.

eh

fox has a lot of things up it's sleeves and if any of the reality shows get some ratings, then they can make it.

Arrested will be around for a while. TRUST ME. They are banking on that and the simpsons for now along with simple life and the other quick buck reality shows.

those shows you listed all died for a reason. have it be bad night or something else. no point crying over spilled milk.

nuff said.

I just find the money issue hard to swallow. Tru Calling couldn't have had much of a cost per episode unless Dushku and Priestly were getting a large sum. Fox knew the cost from last season, so if the cost remained stable, I don't see any sense in it. If they ran over-budget, then that would be one thing. But from all I understand, Fox ordered 13 initially, then scaled it back to 6 episodes, which were produced with no financial problems. You aren't going to be able to produce 13 episodes when the network only pays for 6. Maybe there's something that hasn't been in any of the articles I've read that would explain why this show suddenly became such a financial burden.

You said Fox has things up their sleeve, and I guess we'll see. Everything they've had up their sleeve for the last couple of years has been a total disaster or a one-shot deal (Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, Joe Millionaire, etc.) The reason Fox is in so much trouble is due to bone-headed decisions, but normally when you have a show like Tru Calling that get's decent numbers in a targeted demo (Female 18-34) you wouldn't cancel unless A. You have proven successes to fill the void or B. The show costs too much to produce. Clearly A isn't the case.

I guess if Fox can make more money off of a reality-bomb than a mild, consistent scripted program, I won't have to worry about this repeating itself again. Maybe this will let cable get the next Brimstone, Firefly and Wonderfalls... Still, I'd think ABC's resurrection this season might send a message to Fox.

This will be a positive thing in the end if Fox cancelling it means another network that isn't Fox picks it up. I will be shocked if this show doesn't end up on the WB. Sunday's at 9pm have been trouble on the network for years, and this year is the worst since Charmed was the lead-in. What could be a more perfect companion to Charmed. It gets the same female 18-34 audience Tru Calling was so successful in attracting. If not, the six unaired episodes will show up from SkyOne or whoever airs Tru in Britain... God bless the Internet.

It's a simple matter. Here is a potential reason why it became a money burdon. Arrested just won an emmy. they toss a lot into that more so then they already expected to make sure it's top notch. They then decide to push Northern Shore a bit more with a thursday date. They feel with the right promotion, they could crack the thursday night which NBC is slowly losing it's death grip on. They then decide to do a lot of one shot reality shows. Express nanny, etc. shit like that which brings in good enough numbers for the price they pay for the cost of it. A lot of small hits are better then something they need to still spoon feed to make it float.

Reality-bomb: Makes money out of shock value
Consistent scripted program: Cost on writers, actors, etc.
Reality shows aren't going anywhere. deal with it.

You don't understand. Fox WAS trying to dump it on another network. You know buffy? It's a fox production. 20th television did it and they handed it over to WB and then to UPN, exactly the same thing they wanted to do with tru calling when money for the studio was a little tight pushing other projects. That way they could foot the bill for the production on someone else. But no one was biting. The had 13 episode set up, but could only afford to do 6 and then had to wrap it up. They striked the set and SAVED the sets in case money got free'd up or UPN or WB wanted it. I'm taking the news that no one was interested. Simple as that. by the way, you do know who owns SkyOne... right? Let me give you a hint. it's a News Corporation.

Has anyone factored in the increased costs of shooting in Vancouver, considering the strength of the Canadian dollar? I mean, you're looking at probably a 15-20% increase in costs from the beginning of shooting for the last season, and that's just the currency differential... Could be a factor.

Damn FOX! I knew this was going to happen.

What is most puzzling about this is that FOX doesn't appear to have any new hits or pseudo-hits on its hands plus That 70s Show will be gone after this season. It's whole summer experiment bombed. Except for Sunday comedies, The O.C. and 24, are they going to go the all-reality route?

I still want to know who Brooke Burns slept with at FOX to keep them from pulling the plug on North Shore?

Their recent string of failure just makes me scratch my head even more at the cancellations of Keen Eddie, Andy Richter Controls..., Wonderfalls, Fastlane and John Doe.

That is what it seems like. That is all the commercials that I say for their shows is reality based. Hell Arrested Development barily made it back.

I hope they don't cancel the DVD. I'd be willing to pick up the six-episode set next year (if it gets made).

I would probably be better if they DID go all-reality. I could stop watching them all together.

As it stands now I have to tune in for That 70's Show and Arrested Development, but since it's 70's last year and I'd be amazed if AD made it back, maybe next year will be the year I remove it from my channel guide.

If Fox got rid of their entire current lineup except Arrested Development and replaced it with all the great shows they cancelled unjustly over the past few years - it would be one kick-ass lineup!

Looks like a Faith series won't happen anytime soon either.

Enough with this Faith business. Eliza needs to concentrate on her R-rated movie career. ;)

It seems like Fox is doing the programming equivalent of daytrading. They're living in the moment, but they have no long-term goals, or contingency plans if Idol finally falls and none of its other reality shows get a foothold.

Besides Idol, they had a huge hit with Joe Millionaire, but that turned out to be unfranchisable when the sequel bombed hard. Fat Fiance was a pretty big hit, but the sequel seems to stray too far away from what made the original popular. (If anything, NBC's upcoming lottery winner scam show seems to be more of a sequel to Fiance than this). The Swan is easy to franchise, but that was only a mild hit to begin with. Simple Life will face depreciating numbers each time they try it, and the Paris-Nicole backlash is ever growing. They may be able to pop out new shows like nobody's business, but they've been unable to create any new shows that can actually build an audience... which scripted shows can.

Grrr. Well, hopefully Tru Calling Season 1 will sell well enough next month tp atleast comission a 2 Disc DVD set of the 6 unrealeased episodes. I can only really see Fox airing the 6 episoes sometime next summer to 'burn' them off. Man, te show was really starting to get good with the appearence of Jason Priestly.