Tom Banjo

I'm with Josh. I'll wait for an official announcement just to be sure, but when that announcement is made I'm cancelling my subscription. That show was the only reason I even paid for the channel. I was about to buy the first season of Deadwood, too, but not anymore.
Fuck HBO. Loyalty to the fans is a distant second to making money, it seems. I think if a network would actually show some loyalty to it's viewers, they would get respect from people like us and ultimately more viewers because of it.

Dr_Evil

That sucks that they cancelled it, this was one of my favorite shows. But give HBO credit, most networks would not have even given it a second season (or even let it finish the first). There is no way I am cancelling my HBO subscription. Even with carnivale gone they still have most of the best shows on television (Deadwood, The Wire, Sopranos, CYE). Giving the go ahead for The Wire season four probably sealed the deal for Carnivale. I'd guess they wouldn't want to keep two dramas that weren't pulling in viewers, so they kept, imo, the better of the two.

sdk

Knauf said that that would not matter if hbo renewed carnivale for a third season.

Ralph Jenkins

This was the only TV show I cared about watching. I guess it's back to just watching DVDs for me.

lopper

You know what would be more effective than canceling your subscriptions and not buying their DVDs?

An internet poll. That'll show 'em.

sdk

Hehe. But it must suck ruining a reputation you have spent so many years to build.

das Monkey

You can't have everything you want. No other network in the history of television would have produced The Wire, let alone renewed it for a fourth season when no one is watching it. When other networks are consistently and repeated screwing their viewers over and over and over again, turning on HBO is remarkably shallow. I'm pissed that Carnivale won't continue. I absolutely love the show, but a little perspective on this wouldn't hurt. This reminds me of how people went apeshit over The WB cancelling Angel after 10 seasons in the Buffyverse. 10!!! If fans react this irrationally to the cancellation of a single show and let that completely overshadow everything else a network does, it's no wonder they're not overly interested in our opinions. We must look ridiculously fickle to them. There's a lot of bullshit that goes on in TV Land, much of which is well deserving of our anger, but when compared to everyone else, HBO is a shining beacon of light. Turning on them is really weak IMO.

das

BJacks

This sucks. I appreciate that they renewed The Wire, but if it was between that and Carnivale, I would have vastly preferred they favored the latter. I like The Wire, but in all honesty, there's a lot of great police/crime shows on TV, but there's nothing out there like Carnivale. To not be able to see where the story takes us is overwhelmingly frustrating.

theedge

Booooooooooo.

Dead Like me, now Carnivale? 2 of the most interesting and innovative shows in a long time get the ax after just 2 seasons each. (or was it 3 for DLM). What is next? Reality shows on HBO??? Might as well just call them the Fox of Cable!

dave-o

I don't know if others are in a similar boat as me but I am not trying to be fickle or shallow. I just see no reason to keep subscribing. I don't watch the Wire or Deadwood, Six Feet Under and The Sopranos are still far off(and on their last seasons), and I honestly don't want to invest two years in any new shows only to find out they are being shut down.

If HBO thinks that my favorite television show does not deserve to be renewed, so be it, but why would I continue to pay for a network that appears to have a vastly different opinion of quality televison than mine? It can't be just about the ratings, b/c I thought I read that they improved this year (and aren't they similar to The Wire's ratings?). Perhaps it had to do with it being so expensive to produce and I can certainly understand that too. Either way, I applaud them for sticking with it as long as they did and for green-lighting it in the first place. A business decision was made and now they are moving on, and so am I.

LorenzoL

I don't think Dead Like Me was an HBO show.

JasonF

Dead Like Me was Showtime, which has a history of jerking its original programming around a lot more than HBO does (although I believe HBO owns Showtime).

I'm disappointed Carnivale is cancelled, but ultimately, it wasn't an unreasonable decision for HBO to make.

scarredgod

i kinda figured this would be the last season, and im pretty happy with the season 2 finale as a closure to the series. sure i would love more, this season was nothing short of brilliant, but what can you do. i do think a theatrical movie could fully close up all the loose ends in an hour 45 minutes and give us real closure, womewhat.

jrsl76

This just figures, because I always seem to get drawn into shows with cult-y audiences that teeter on the abyss. I literally finally saw Season 1 on dvd over the past 2 to 3 weeks and thought it was fantastic. I mean I had heard Deadwood was good (and it is really fantastic), but I wasn't really sure if Carnivale would do much for me. I ended up liking it even more than Deadwood. Hopefully, they will be able to continue through some avenue as Daniel Knauf was quoted in TV Guide.

Geofferson

Dimension X

Michael T Hudson

My wife will be upset. I for one and happy the Wire made it.

cajun_junky

I was planning on picking this up to fill in the missing shows. Oh well....no point now. I hate the lack of closure.

Hopefully deadwood will survive for several more seasons.

sdk

Knauf has said that that will not happen, the way the show is laid up is for 6 seasons. He gave hbo the choice between 6 and 3 they chose 6 (go figure). So there is no way he could cram 36 hours down to 2 or 4. He also said that this show might be like star trek and get picked up at a later point in time.

And comparing it to buffy/angel who like you said has had 10 seasons is not a good comparison. And there is a diffrence between a premium chanel and addvertisment paid channels. And when hbo does this who is to say they won't do it again in the near future.

WarriorPrincess

OK, that bites. I don't subscribe to hbo because I'd rather have the shows on dvd, but now I won't be getting Carnivale (which I have been really wanting) since there's no closure. If it was set up for either a 3 year story arc or a 6 year story arc (a la Babylon 5 with its 5 year arc) and HBO CHOSE the 6 year plan, then cancelled it after only 2 years, that's a huge slap in the face to the fans. We count on being able to see the end of shows we care about, and knowing a show has a beginning, middle and end that is pre-planned, agreed to ahead of time by the network, and has begun to be executed, then having it yanked out from under us...that's all kinds of wrong.

And I do expect more from a paid subscription venue than from broadcast tv which is at the mercy of just a few nielsen families. HBO can send surveys/have online surveys/etc. to all its subscribers to find out why they have hbo, what shows they like, what shows they want to watch but haven't started yet for whatever reason, etc. That way people could tell them they are waiting to see if all seasons will be produced before committing to the show, or waiting to buy it on dvd, or waiting for hbo to re-air it in order from the beginning at convenient times, etc. Subscription channels shouldn't be subject to the whim of first run nielsen numbers - if I think it's worth it to pay for hbo for 3 shows I want to see, but the times that are convenient to watch and/or record (due to timeslot conflicts) mean that I am watching/recording the re-runs of the show, who cares? I am still paying for the subscription for those shows alone, regardless of what airing I choose to watch.

I also think people would be more willing to allow the monitoring of what shows they really watch if they could opt out on a show by show basis - monitoring the viewing of some of the soft-core shows might be embarrassing for a lot of folks, but they wouldn't care if hbo tracked their viewing of carnivale, deadwood, 6 feet under, etc. That way hbo could truly see if people are watching the show or not instead of relying on poorly designed systems like nielsen.

das Monkey

I think you may have the wrong impression. While there's a 6-year plan, it's 3 2-year stories. Seasons 1 and 2 do form a coherent and near-complete story unto themselves. This is a very poor analogy, but it's not unlike the Star Wars franchise. There may be 9 films in concept, but taken as 3 trilogies, they stand mostly on their own. Granted, Carnivale is likely closer to how I'd expect Sith to end than Jedi in that everything is not tied up into a neat bow, but these two seasons do provide a beginning, middle, and end; there just happens to be a larger plan that won't come to fruition. This is profoundly frustrating, but it's not something like Crusade or Firefly or John Doe.

das

sdk

And the whole three two year plans is good for us, becuase season three should have taken place 4 years into the future. And that does mean that hbo has four years to redeem themself, and the actors would not have gotten to old (unless someone dies) And like i have said before, knauf hopes that the show might be like star trek and get picked up at a later stage in time.

das Monkey

Btw, while the show is almost certainly gone, you can always contact HBO by phone, as they're one of the few places that publically lists a viewer feedback line that is not an answering machine:
das

Cruella

Well, I don't live in USA, so I cannot unsubscribe from HBO anyway. And if I could I wouldn't - they kept the WIRE on air, groundbreaking, non-pretty TV which deals with questions that our politics would rather we not ask, this is maybe the best show on TV with VERY low ratings, yet they kept if for quality sake.

Sad to see Carnivale go, but many critics were meh on this show and ratings were low. HBO gave us so many great shows, and after keeping The Wire on air they get the free pass from me.

dave-o

Not sure if this means anything but I just called the number Das posted and got a surprisng response....I told the woman I was concerned because I have been hearing rumors that HBO would not be picking up Carnivale for a third season. The woman reponded by saying that this is completely untrue and that this show was one of their "pride and joys". She continued on saying that the show has been getting good ratings and that they are getting set to produce season number three, all the while adamantly denying the cancellation.

Hmmm...very interesting. Ok, so I don't believe this woman at all and the cynical side of me is thinking that they have been coached in how to answer these phone calls at this point, but it was surprising nonetheless.