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Exclusive: USA Kills Dead Zone, Subtracts 4400


Next time USA Network gives you a lump of coal for Christmas, be thankful — very thankful — because this year, my moles tell me, what you're getting is the cancellation of both The Dead Zone and The 4400.

Yep, per multiple sources, the much-discussed Armageddon came early to The Dead Zone — so early, in fact, that the show's last episode aired... gee, back in September. What turned out to be the 4400's series finale aired the same night.

In a statement posted on the official 4400 message boards, series creator Scott Peters said, "We've had a great time bringing you this story and submersing you in the lives of all these incredible characters. Let me raise my metaphorical glass to you all and thank you for being so loyal and so dedicated. I wish we could go on forever, but the party has come to an end."

Already, petitions were circulating to get The 4400 renewed, but is the effort too little, too late? Can anything bring The Dead Zone back to life? Or should the shows be allowed to rest in peace? Discuss, debate and, if you have to weep, do it quietly, huh?

I thought The 4400 was suppose to get one final season to wrap it up? Crap. All the good shows are getting canned.

DZ has been around for four seasons? Maybe five? Can't be made that it's going away. They had a nice run. It seems like USA is finding it's next batch of shows.

The 4400 died with Lily.

The finale was really good for the 4400.
I really wish I could see what the new season would of done with the story line

Maybe they want to put more money to L&O: CI. For me, almost unwatchable and I yearn for episodes like those in the first 1-4 years.

Sorry for the fans of these shows... I caught one or two once or twice but it just wasn't my thing.

Dead Zone should be allowed to wrap up its story arc in at least a 2-hour episode if that's possible.

and here I was hoping for an official ending to The Dead Zone.

4400 hasn't been good in a couple of years.

My wife loves both of these shows. She's going to be super pissed.

I watch Dead Zone on DVD (i.e. I'm a season behind) so somebody tell me -- does this mean that the series ends with no closure on the long-running Stilson/Armageddon subplot?

Guess I should watch the 6 or so episodes of The 4400 I have on my dvr.

Ahhhh. So many unresolved plots on the Dead Zone! And they never explained that magazine cover. The only thing nice about the last ep was Johnny and Sara getting back together, but still so much left hanging.

True. but they certainly started to bring some potential back this last season. Really too bad they aren't going to have one more season to resolve everything though. It really did have some cool new avenues to persue too.

Lame.

So on The Dead Zone, I was considering catching up with THAT show like I did with 4400 so I could watch both as they air next season but now not so much. Is Dead Zone worth it or did last season have a sucky ending?

4400 needs at least a movie to wrap it up. I really enjoyed last year.

I stopped watching TDZ after S1. I watched all of The 4400, but I'm not terribly sad to see it go.

Me too. Give us a proper ending or something. The show has been building to a dramatic conclusion all this time. Give it to us, even if only in a two hour movie or something.

This news SUCKS.

DEAD ZONE was one of the best shows on TV...it deserved better. I'm sure a lot of this has to do with the writers strike and USA wanting to free up those crews to find new work. Chances are both those shows only had one season left anyway, which may be why USA decided to just cancel them (since it looks like the strike will go until at least the spring, if not later).

I'm sure 2-hour movies down the road might be in the realm of possibility...assuming there's enough of a fan outcry.

I have to agree, but I still continued to watch through the first couple episodes of season 4, but I thought it just got annoying to watch afterwhile. But with that said, I just wished I had known that the show was going to end so I could have watched the finale episode.

The 4400 died several seasons ago. Dead Zone I never watched.

I am about 2 seasons behind on Dead Zone anyway.

I think The 4400 needed 1 more season to wrap things up. There's still some stories left to tell with the new Seattle. I'm going to miss Joel Gretsch and Jacki McKenzie during the summer. Hopefully USA will consider a 2-hour wrap-up movie.

Indeed. One thing I really liked about The 4400 was that it really went somewhere with its plot, and the events of the most recent episode were pretty damn huge. Ideally I'd love to see another season or two expanding on the storyline, but it would really suck if they didn't get to do anything at all to wrap it all up. Hopefully they'll at least get a chance to do a TV movie or miniseries to at least resolve the main conflict:



This really does show a huge downside to more serialized series, though. Because of things like this, I rarely give new shows a chance when they first start out, because I don't want to get invested in something only to have it canceled before it gets a chance to finish the story.

Damn. Sucks about the 4400. That was easily one the best shows on TV. Basically it was what Heroes should have been, it just didn't have their budget. I really dug evil Tom this past year.

The Dead Zone died a couple years ago for me. The season premiere this season pretty much had the producers of the show throwing the bird to the fans who had stuck with the past two seasons of crap, hoping for a resolution to the Armageddon storyline.

At least Burn Notice got picked up.

Yeah, my wife is going to be pissed over the Dead Zone as well.

Maybe I shouldn't tell her until after Christmas...

Agreed.