Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,518
edits
Screwed by the Network/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (update links) |
No edit summary |
||
| (14 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] shows [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] include:
* The [[Ur Example|granddaddy]] of all [[Screwed by the Network]] examples: [[Star Trek: The Original Series|the original]] ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]''. After two seasons of middling ratings, [[NBC]] announced its intent to cancel the show. However, [[Sending Stuff to Save the Show|a national campaign of letter writing]], led by a fan named Betty Jo Trimble, resulted in an unprecedented backdown by the network. NBC renewed the show for Season 3... but also cut the show's budget by approximately half and placed the show in the [[Friday Night Death Slot]], when the show's demographic was likely to be doing anything but watching TV. Episode quality, and consequently ratings, suffered meteoric falls (although it was responsible for some of the series' most memorable episodes), followed by cancellation at the end of the season.<br /><br />Interestingly, many of the cast and crew involved in the show later declared that the show's cancellation [[Tropes Are Not Bad|was the best thing to happen to the franchise]] -- instead of the slashed budget taking its toll and resulting in a steady decline in quality, ''[[Star Trek]]'' cemented itself in the public consciousness as an excellent show killed before its time, which left fans clamoring for more and led to the creation of eleven films and five subsequent series, [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|the second of which]] would win critical acclaim and eighteen Emmys in the process, and [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|another of which]] would garner the highest critical ratings of any ''Trek'' series and pioneer [[Character Development]] and serialized plotlines and [[Myth Arc|Myth Arcs]] several years before that became common on network television.▼
** That the latter writing campaign saved Star Trek is a myth created by Roddenberry, who also organized the ''fan campaign'', in reality it had little to no effect (and why would it, NBC knew how many people were watching, these numbers don't magically change if the audience starts writing letters). Though [[Lucille Ball]] did make a big stink and threatened to leave which shook the house. But according to ''Inside Star Trek'' the true reason ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' got a third season was because back then NBC's parent company was RCA, which owned the patent for color television. Star Trek was one of the biggest reasons why people bought color TV sets, and RCA made more money by selling them to Star Trek fans than NBC lost by airing Star Trek instead of something else.▼
* The [[Ur Example|granddaddy]] of all [[Screwed by the Network]] examples: [[Star Trek: The Original Series|the original ''Star Trek'']]. After two seasons of middling ratings, [[NBC]] announced its intent to cancel the show. However, [[Sending Stuff to Save the Show|a national campaign of letter writing]], led by a fan named Betty Jo Trimble, resulted in an unprecedented backdown by the network. NBC renewed the show for Season 3... but also cut the show's budget by approximately half and placed the show in the [[Friday Night Death Slot]], when the show's demographic was likely to be doing anything but watching TV. Episode quality, and consequently ratings, suffered meteoric falls (although it was responsible for some of the series' most memorable episodes), followed by cancellation at the end of the season.
▲**
▲** That the
* In a tragic and unexplainable move, NBC decided to move ''[[The Tonight Show]]'', hosted by [[Conan O'Brien]], from its regular 11:30 timeslot to 12:05. Because he knew it would push out ''[[Late Night]]'', do more harm to ''The Tonight Show'' than help, and because he was just plain tired of being dicked around by the network, Conan threatened to quit the show and leave the network in protest. NBC paid him a penalty of $44 Million to leave while Jay Leno took ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' back. Conan was '''so''' badly screwed by the network that ''even his direct competitors'' are furious on his behalf: [[David Letterman]], Craig Ferguson, Jon Stewart, [[Stephen Colbert]], George Lopez, and Jimmy Kimmel have all directly reamed NBC for their atrocious behavior.
** Not to mention, in a rare example of knock-on screwing effect, the ill-advised decision to park Jay's talk show -- and promote it exclusively and ''not'' Conan, even in the nightly lead-ups -- five nights a week at 10:00 PM managed to screw Conan ''and'' every NBC station due to the decision to cancel five nights of prime-time scripted drama, causing ratings for the late local news to tank across the country. It arguably didn't help Jay, either.
Line 7 ⟶ 10:
** Conan and Andy did "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour" from April-June, then moved to [[Network to the Rescue|TBS.]]
** Conan got screwed by NBC again with the handling of his production ''Outlaw'', which not only got the Friday Night Death Slot but got canceled after just five episodes due not getting the desired 18-49 demographic (who probably doesn't even watch TV on Fridays). Its replacement, ''School Pride'', has gotten far worse ratings but does not seem to be on any sort of cancellation threat (it was finally canceled, but only because the producer died).
** The Network started the whole Tonight Show mess by not renewing Leno's contract (even though the show was #1) & giving the show to O'Brien. Rumor was that the Tonight Show was a bribe to keep O'Brien at NBC & not do a competing show on another network.
* Things are not looking so great for ''[[Community]]''. Despite critical acclaim, a cult following,and getting picked up for a fourth season it seems that NBC are trying to screw this one over.
** First the 4th season was cut from the regular 24 episodes to 13.
** The series was then moved to the infamous [[Friday Night Death Slot]]
** To add insult to injury, creator and showrunner [[Dan Harmon]] got replaced without his knowledge.
* ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' was also moved around to different time slots, and fans overwhelmed the network with mail to keep it on the air. The series finale was just supposed to be a ''season'' finale. A [[Downer Ending|rather depressing]] title card was added to the very last shot of the series in order to wrap things up.
* When ''[[Jericho]]'' got canceled the first time, CBS decided not to announce its impending doom until AFTER the cliffhanger season finale aired (it made the nuts all the more necessary).
** The only consolation prize from all of this was that the writers were prepared for an either-or situation (two different endings, both filmed) and that CBS informed them of their cancellation before airing the series finale. Notice how networks now are giving more of their serial dramas (and their fans) ample warning of likely cancellation BEFORE their season finale airs to give writers some time to wrap up major storylines. The ''Jericho'' fans may have been a major influence in this change, which would make this seem like a bittersweet victory for fans of quality TV story-telling.
* This occurs in-universe in ''[[Seinfeld]]''. Jerry and George had been pushing for a long time to get their "show about nothing" approved by NBC. Finally, their first episode is aired and is successful. However, at the same time, the head executive who had approved the show goes AWOL and is replaced by a vindictive woman who cancels the show out of spite.
* The popular hit Fox show ''[[New York Undercover]]'', though it could be argued that it was screwed by the writers, rather than the network. In the third season, the show introduced audiences to Tommy McNamara. From that season onward, the show focused more around him, than the two original main characters, Julius Clearance and Eduardo Torres. As a result, the show lost ratings and was eventually cancelled.
* ''[[Wonderfalls]]'' (aired on [[
* ''[[Firefly]]'' was supposed to begin with a double-length pilot episode that set up the complex universe the series was set in, along with the various characters' relationships. The network decided that the pilot wasn't action-oriented enough and should be shelved, asking the show's creators to make a new first episode, giving them ''just one weekend'' to write it. After that premiere, Fox completely ignored the arc and aired the episodes in seemingly random order, in some cases resulting in episodes showing [["Previously On..."]] scenes that wouldn't air until the ''following'' week. There was almost no commercial promotion whatsoever following the premiere (and even the commercials that did show downplayed the series strengths to "[[Viewers are Morons|broaden the appeal]]",) episodes were preempted for sporting events on numerous occasions, and the pilot movie didn't air until ''after'' the series had been canceled. Not to mention, it ''also'' aired in the [[Friday Night Death Slot]].
* ''[[Drive (TV series)|Drive]]'''s first three episodes were aired over two nights; the fourth aired a week later, and then it was canceled, giving all of four episodes and nine days. This after the initial thirteen-episode order was split in half, so even if it hadn't been canceled it would have run for a month, followed by a three-month hiatus. This proves once again that [[Tim Minear]] (who also produced both ''Wonderfalls'' and ''Firefly'', see above) and [[
* In 1985, [[The BBC|BBC]] controller [[Michael Grade]] (you know, the one [[Chris Morris]] [[Brass Eye|called]] a [[Country Matters|c**t]]) cancelled the original series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' -- a show he reportedly loathed, until public pressure resulted in the cancellation being modified into an 18-month hiatus. To his credit, he allowed the series to continue afterward, but is blamed for the decision to fire then-star Colin Baker. He later claimed that he did the former out of spite and the latter out of dislike for the actor's style. He also scheduled the show against popular [[Soap Opera]] ''[[Coronation Street]]'', which was a major factor in the show's 1989 death. He didn't escape entirely unscathed for this -- apparently he was unaware that ''Doctor Who'' was a favorite series of the Queen, and as a result is the ''only'' BBC head never to receive a knighthood from HRM.
** The new series was not immune to this too. The series debuted on the US [[Syfy]] in 2006 and was screwed from the start. Varying minutes of material was cut from episodes for time, ("Journey's End", originally 65 minutes, was cut down to 45 minutes. Editing over-kill.) the trailers for the show the channel ran often revealed hefty spoilers, and finally they got rid of the show completely in 2009. [[BBC America]] picked it up and have been treating it much, ''much'' better than [[Syfy]] did.
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' was victimized ''twice'' by network heads (Doug Herzog at [[Comedy Central]] and Bonnie Hammer at [[Syfy]]) who professed not to understand the show's sense of humor and clearly resented having it left to them as a legacy program from previous executives; they wound up fighting a war of attrition against the show's small but vocal fan base while looking for an excuse to cancel the series. Despite this, the show enjoyed a ten-season run, plus almost five years of reruns on the [[Syfy]], before finally signing off for good in 2004. [[The Movie]] is well known for being screwed by the ''studio''.
* Bonnie Hammer and [[The Dragon|Mark Stern]], while separating the schedules of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and
** Bonnie Hammer = Satan has been around a while. Ask any ''[[Forever Knight]]'' fan about the treatment their show got on [[USA Network]]. The last four episodes were the first original dramatic program on the [[Sci Fi]] Channel... because [[USA Network]] dumped the last four episodes on a channel that, at the time, had about 500,000 subscribers.
** Not to outdo themselves, they seemingly swore to repeat history with ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' and ''[[Caprica]]'', after a first season in the usual franchise timeslot for the former and an inexplicable seventh month hiatus for the latter, both shows were shoved into arguably the worst possible timeslot, Tuesday nights, against some of the most popular shows on television, left to die while the "Scifi Friday" timeslot was given away to...[[Network Decay|wrestling]].
Line 33 ⟶ 36:
* ''Covington Cross'' (1992) received the same treatment, airing only six episodes over eight weeks, being constantly preempted and/or moved due to sports programming. After the show's "dismal" ratings, it was canned by the network.
** It was also expensive to produce (shot on location in England), and a prime target for [[Moral Guardians]] due to its violent content.
* When the BBC originally aired ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', they broadcast it at inconsistent hours and preempted it with the ''Horse Of The Year Show''. This is the reason for some of the show's [[Biting the Hand Humor]] and malicious jokes about BBC television programming. Terry Jones even had to buy the original tapes from the BBC to prevent their destruction, as TV studios at the time were in the habit of taping over shows they no longer wanted.
* ''[[Cupid]]'' was bounced around from the [[Friday Night Death Slot]] to Saturday (the two nights nobody is ever home to watch a romantic dramedy) to Thursday against NBC's Must See TV, justifying its cancellation before the end of the season. Oddly enough, the show may be [[Uncancelled]] as ABC has given its creator permission to try again.
** An awful [[Revival]] series was made. It bombed. End of story.
Line 52 ⟶ 55:
** The CW started screwing over a LOT of shows, particularly their half-hour comedies. ''[[Everybody Hates Chris]]'', as well as ''The Game'' got cancelled. Another show, ''Aliens In America'', despite receiving good reviews and having decent ratings, got the worst treatment by not only being moved to the Sunday slot, but the later episodes were never advertised. (needless to say, its ratings were pretty much destroyed. Doesn't help that the Writers Strike caused the last few episodes of its first and only season to never be finished). While [[Reaper]], a Dramedy about a young slacker who must be Satan's bounty hunter, did get the dignity of a second season, it still got screwed over by CW. Like the many other shows they screwed over, Reaper suffered mostly through lack of advertising. Go look at the ratings for each season 2 episode. They PLUMMET, and plummet hard, about halfway through.
* The last seasons of ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' and ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' had so much executive meddling from Dawn Ostroff and the other people at UPN who somehow fell upward into the executive suite of the new network, that the slam-dunk "Girl Power Tuesday"' dream lineup which had been gushed about by critics and fans at the time of the merger ended up failing miserably, with both of them considered universally the worst seasons by the fanbases. This was due to The CW forcing the shows to hire writers that didn't know anything about either show's canon (certainly not helping was The CW not allowing Amy Sherman-Palladino to continue with ''Gilmore Girls''), insulting the intelligence of their fanbase by hyperfocusing on the lead actors of each show when both programs had been built on ensemble casts, forcing ''Veronica Mars'' to abandon the season-wide arcs of the past for reviled "[[Police Procedural|crime of the week]]" episodes, and finally the "Content Wrap" (an annoying advertising concept created by the network putting a brand front and center in a non-subtle way) deal with American Eagle Outfitters which forced the [[Product Placement|Aerie Girls]] onto fanbases that considered them vapid, annoying, and completely against the spirit of both series, all in the name of selling overpriced underwear.
* ''[[New Amsterdam]]'' was screwed over (by [[
* ''[[American Dreams]]'' by NBC - the show performed fairly decently in its original Sunday night timeslot, but it wasn't enough. NBC played a wise move and moved the show to Wednesday nights at 10 in direct competition with CBS' ''Surviver: Palau'' and ABC's ''[[Lost]]''. The show was canceled despite many fan campaigns, but the producers were able to film a brief finally to [[Wrap It Up]], but NBC ultimately decided not to broadcast the finale, leaving many viewers hanging.
* ABC originally slotted ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' against ''[[Cheers]]'', against which it actually performed admirably...then shifted the show's timeslot repeatedly.
* Feeling that ABC wasn't promoting it enough, [[Stephen King]] spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to buy print ads for ''[[Kingdom Hospital]]''. The network then decided to change the timeslot to compete with ''[[CSI]]'', meaning all the ads King bought gave the wrong time. King was probably pissed-off at this.
* ABC's apparent reaction to ''Commander In Chief'' winning Emmys for its acting was to kill the show. They put it on hold during the Winter Olympics, then moved it to a different timeslot afterwards without properly announcing this. Ratings suffered, so they canceled it.
* When ''[[Due South]]'' first premiered on CBS in 1994, it produced higher-than-expected ratings for the network (and for the [[CTV]] network in Canada). Because one of the CBS executives who endorsed the series was fired, the show was canceled. Then, after CBS' Fall lineup became DOA, the show was brought back again. After several months of beating ''Friends''(!), the show was canned once more. This came after a [https://web.archive.org/web/20131019172436/http://www.mysterynet.com/tv/profiles/duesouth/ press release] praising the show's critical acclaim. It's a good thing the series was then picked up by Canadian and foreign investors.
* ''[[Medium]]'' was one of NBC's strongest performers (which isn't saying much), but was constantly put on hiatus and was treated like filler on its Monday lineup. Then CBS picked it up...and wins the [[Friday Night Death Slot]].
* Reportedly, this is happening to ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]''. The rumor going around is that the fans of Terry Goodkind's book series are so furious at the way the books have been adapted for TV, Disney-ABC is afraid to advertise it. However, the ironic twist is that the show has possibly taken the advertising budget, poured it into show quality, done some interesting stunt casting (Charisma Carpenter and Jolene Blalock, for starters), and have caused the ratings to slowly climb in its second season. Of course, the show's trapped in a syndication nightmare, so Season 3 is still in limbo.
Line 75 ⟶ 78:
** For most of its seven-season run, ''[[Da Vinci's Inquest|Da Vincis Inquest]]'' was the most-watched show on Canadian television. The second the show's ratings started to drop (when it relaunched as ''Da Vinci's City Hall'', the show was yanked from the schedule. Better yet, a TV movie wrapping up all the plot threads from the series, ''The Quality of Life'', was kept on hold for four years due to [[Executive Meddling]], and finally dumped on a Friday night with no promotion.
* For some reason, ABC decided to screw ''[[Samantha Who]]?'', which was undoubtedly one of their most successful shows with high ratings and an award-winning cast. The deathblow? The network decided to move the show from its popular Monday timeslot (right after ''[[Dancing With the Stars]]'') to a Thursday timeslot right after ''In The Motherhood'', a complete flop that turned off most viewers.
* ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' was screwed over by ABC. Its first three seasons aired consistently on Thursday nights at 8:00pm. However a slight drop in ratings resulted in the show being shunned to the [[Friday Night Death Slot]] at 9:00pm in favor of "Flash Forward" taking its place (which ended up being canceled). ABC was clearly trying to end Ugly Betty. Betty's ratings were cut in half after the night and time switch, and its fans spoke out. Betty was then moved mid-Season 4 to Wednesday nights at 10:00pm with other comedy shows. Even though Betty's ratings improved, it was too late. The show officially ended at the end of Season 4, not finishing its original ordered run. The show did get a story sendoff, but it was rushed, and many plot points were never explained.
* When ''Kings'' first premiered, NBC had put it in the 8:00 PM Sunday timeslot. However, despite the show's unique concept, strong cast, and high production quality, NBC decided to relegate the fledgling series to Saturday nights after airing just four episodes, where steadily declining ratings eventually killed it.
* ''[[Nickelodeon]]'' has several examples of screwing shows:
Line 82 ⟶ 85:
** ''[[True Jackson, VP|True Jackson VP]]'' is rarely shown on the network (but mostly shown on [[Teen Nick]]). Whenever a new episode is scheduled to air, no "new episode" promo is shown until THE DAY OF the airing and whenever a rerun airing of the show is scheduled to air.
** ''[[The Troop]]'' is also treated pretty badly by the network, resulting in both shows being called the [[Redheaded Stepchild|Red Headed Stepchildren]] of the network.
*** Nickelodeon was a bit more kind to ''[[The Troop]]'' in the second season, giving it a plush Saturday-afternoon timeslot, right after ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]''. However, they decided to screw it even there by pre-empting the new episodes with ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' reruns! However, it was because the show was moved to a prime-time timeslot on Saturday nights!
** '''Anything''' produced by their international networks (especially their Australian and British operations) seems to air out of bare contractual obligation of a promise to air on the American network, though the international producers have no say on promotion or timeslots at all it seems. Witness the rebranding of the Australian series ''Lightning Point'' on [[Teen Nick]] to the generically confusing ''Alien Surf Girls''.
** For the network as a whole, it's incredible decline in ratings in 2011 can be mostly due to it's odd treatment of it's shows not named ''Spongebob Squarepants'', ''Victorious'', or ''[[iCarly]]''. However, even ''[[iCarly]]'' has gotten some bad treatment lately. From advertising two separate episodes as the 'season premiere' ([[The Other Wiki]] hasn't even established when most seasons started, forcing [[Wild Mass Guessing]] as to where each 'season' begins since the network won't tell them), advertising the series to run back to back, only to stop that after 4 episodes, airing episodes with no advertising, and weird timeslots like the 28th of December for the second blooper episode and New Year's Eve for "iPsycho 2", it's ratings have been hammered with several episodes dropping into the bottom 5 rated ever, and the series as a whole dropping the average ratings of the rest of the show by over ''a million'' viewers.
Line 88 ⟶ 91:
** Not to mention ''Taina'', for those unaware or it. It was about, Taina, a teenaged Puerto-Rican girl who aspires to be a singer and actress. Other cast members included a black guy friend that is sometimes the [[Only Sane Man|voice of reason]], a guy that sometimes plays guitar for Taina's performances, and another aspiring actress who acts mostly as a rival but sometimes a friend to the main character. [[They Copied It, So It Sucks|And if none of that sounds familiar]], Taina is enrolled in [[Victorious|Manhattan Performing Arts School]]. It also received similar ratings to ''Victorious'' and was moved to Saturday nights for the second season (which aired from January to May of 2002) where ratings doubled. Aside from being a popular show, it was cancelled that summer. Number One reason. [[Girl Show Ghetto|Nick thought it only appealed to girls.]] At the time, Nickelodeon's target audience were mostly males. [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Little Girls?|Turns outs guys did like the show too.]]
*** And to make matters worse, look at the current Saturday lineup. ''iCarly'', ''Victorious'', and ''[[How to Rock]]''. All of which have more female main characters than males. Seems although Nick's target demographic is teenage girls, they learned which types of shows and cast attract male viewers as well as female viewers. Especially since their only show with a mostly male main cast is ''[[Big Time Rush]]'' and aimed at girls, and currently new episodes filter in and out whenever the band can do an episode during tour off time, and the only pure male show, ''Bucket and Skinner'' gets the [[Invisible Advertising]] treatment.
* [[
** Another contribution to the ''Titus'' cancellation came when creator [[Christopher Titus]] got called in to meet one of the head honchos at FOX. Turned out that the exec wanted to break up Erin and Titus as they had done with ''[[Dharma and Greg]]''. Titus naturally objected as the show was based on real life, and Erin and Titus had never broken up in real life. Seems Titus' objection was a little too rough for the execs, as the next week all the promos completely stopped and the show ended up canceled not long after that. Ironically, Titus did break up with Erin Carden in 2006 (according to the comedy special ''Love is Evol'') and now Titus is looking to create a [[Spiritual Successor]] to his first sitcom, which shows Titus as a divorcé dating a 29-year-old model with a [[Badass Family]]).
* ''[[Dead Like Me]]'''s executives meddling caused the writer and team to split after three episodes.
* ''[[The Practice]]'' was having great success for six seasons. Then ABC decided to move it from Sunday nights to Monday. ABC wanted the Sunday night position for the new show ''The Lyons Den''. 'Lyons Den' was cancelled in less than one year. 'The Practice' suffered a huge drop in ratings during that year. At the end of the seventh year, ABC refused to renew the show unless its budget was severely cut, citing "poor ratings". As a result, six of the main cast members were fired. Ironically, the show was put back on Sunday nights for its final season, and to show that David E. Kelley can make lemons into lemonade, he introduced a new character, Alan Shore, played by James Spader. The final season mostly dealt with Shore being wooed by a rival law firm, led by Denny Crane, portrayed by special guest star [[William Shatner]]. Spader and Shatner both won Emmys later that year for their performances, and both characters and actors were spun off onto a new show, ''Boston Legal'', which lasted for several years.
Line 100 ⟶ 103:
** This came back to bite the network on the ass. Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of the show, was so angry at the network that he vowed not to work for it again. The next show he created ran on ABC, which [[The Brady Bunch|you may be familiar with.]]
*** Arguably, both sides got something out of this. ''Gunsmoke'' ran for 20 seasons, more than twice the running time of Gilligan/BB combined. However, ''The Brady Bunch'' and ''Gilligan's Island'' became two of the most syndicated shows of all time. Alongside spin-offs, reunion movies, and the nineties films of ''The Brady Bunch'' that were a good-natured parody and deconstruction of the series, in the long run Gilligan/BB have been much more successful.
* ''[[The Partridge Family]]'' was a modest ratings success its first 3 years, debuting at #26 and breaking the top 20 in seasons 2 and 3. Then ABC moved it to Saturday nights, opposite ''[[All in The Family]]'' (in the middle of 5 consecutive seasons at #1). Ratings tanked, and the show was canned.
* ''[[Southland]]'' was plowed over to make room for Jay Leno's daily 10:00 PM show, and didn't come back when the Leno show failed.
** Although it was picked up by TNT.
Line 108 ⟶ 111:
** At that point, even Angela Lansbury had been considering it. She had just turned 70, and the demands of a series were beginning to wear on her. The last few seasons had several episodes which were Poorly Disguised Pilots, where Jessica Fletcher was telling the story as a Frame Narrative. Had it not been cancelled when it was, it would have been soon after.
* Programme creator Phil Redmond felt that this was the very reason that his [[Soap Opera]] ''Brookside'' was cancelled by [[Channel 4]] in 1993.
* ''The Screen Savers'', among most other [[Tech TV]] shows. When G4 "merged" with [[Tech TV]], it was a merger in name only. In everything else, it was a thinly veiled example of a textbook ''hostile takeover''. The G4 execs fired most of the existing [[Tech TV]] talent (the shining example being Leo LaPorte), moved some shows around, canceled other shows, and eventually turned ''The Screen Savers'' into ''[[Attack of the Show!]]''. The only show still surviving from [[Tech TV]] is ''X-Play'', and with the departure of Adam Sessler on acrimonious terms in April 2012, its days are numbered. As if to add insult to injury, the "G4TechTV" name of the merged channels was then changed to G4. This is how you kill a competing channel and become loathed by those who might have been your audience.
** Doesn't help that G4 was owned by Comcast and Comcast decided to drop [[Tech TV]], possibly to lower its price before the merger.
* ''The Goodies'' were shafted by a BBC executive who never liked them. They were denied funding and retreated to ITV, who cancelled them after a season or two.
Line 121 ⟶ 124:
** Unfortunately this is pretty much par for the course with [[Comedy Central]], hence why it gets a [[Once Per Episode]] [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] (and occasional lament) on the very much [[Adored by the Network]] ''[[Tosh.0]]'' which will go to commercial by replacing its own name with that of a show the network previous screwed.
{{quote|'''Daniel Tosh''': "We'll be right back with more...I'm not happy about this one...The Sarah Silverman Program."}}
* ''[[Farscape]]'' was renewed for a fourth and fifth season by the Sci-Fi Channel, and the show's writers plotted out the fourth season under the assumption that story threads, including the season cliffhanger, would be resolved in a fifth, final season. Four days before production ended on the final episode shot of the season (and several weeks after the actual finale had been filmed, owing to episodes being shot out of order), Sci-Fi abruptly cancelled the series. The writers were given a rare opportunity to wrap up the arc in the ''Peacekeeper Wars'' miniseries (produced independently and, ironically, broadcast by Sci-Fi) but it was still a case of having to take a full seasons' worth of story threads and condense them down into a four-hour miniseries.
** In Australia (where it was made) Channel 9 Screwed with it even further. During airing of seasons 2-3 episodes were moved (Out of Order) to the 5:30pm and 11:30pm time slots and due to 'censorship' of the earlier timeslot edited/deleted over 20 mins on each episode and deleted anything that sounded like a swear word.
* ''[[
* ''Breakthrough with Tony Robbins'', which aired in the summer 2010 was screwed by NBC because it was the last program approved (for midseason) by programming non-wunderkind Ben Silverman before the merciful end of his tenure as president of the network. As anyone in the entirety of both NBC Universal and the universe but Ben and Tony knew nobody was going to watch what was pretty much a one-hour [[Infomercial]] in primetime, the program got a cheap budget, the infamously lousy Tuesday at 8pm timeslot, and was absolutely not promoted at all beyond the required synopsis and a ''[[Today]]'' fourth hour interview with Robbins (you get into Hota & Kathie Lee & Wine territory for a promo interview and you know your show is the network's shame of the moment). It also wasn't broadcast in HD, a [[Kiss of Death]] for a program in 2010 unless you're on public access. It died a swift and merciful death after two weeks to be shoved off to shame on NBC.com, with the episodes finally (barely) seeing the light of day on the ever-cursed [[Oprah Winfrey]] Network.
* ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' in Germany got the worst treatment in existence. The first run of season one was at 11PM at Fridays. The show got cancelled after 6 weeks due to low ratings. Two years later they brought it back at the smart timeslot of 1AM in the night of Friday to Saturday. Surprisingly, it worked, and the show has better ratings than the ten viewers before. They aired 2 and a half seasons at this timeslot and occasionally had a rerun at saturday afternoon, which seems to have drowned because of the more popular rival channel having ''[[Scrubs]]'' and ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' at that time. They now announced to show the remaining episodes, now in Saturday/Sunday nights at 3AM. I have no idea how a show could generate viewers at these slots, or do they accept Tivo now?
Line 130 ⟶ 133:
* In the United States, [[ABC Family|FOX Family Channel (now ABC Family)]] only aired the first two seasons of ''[[The Adventures of Shirley Holmes]]'' on Saturdays and Sundays before it stopped airing the show. To add insult to injury, the episodes were usually aired out of order. The third and fourth seasons never saw the light of day in the US.
* Shall no one mourn the loss of ''[[Kyle XY]]''?. After 3 successful seasons (which most people agreed that it really didn't degrade in quality at any point) it appeared that mainly after the slow decline of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' and ''[[Smallville]]'' viewers [[ABC Family]] decided that [[Magic Realism|Superhuman Realism]] based shows weren't really their bag anymore. So ''Kyle'' was suddenly canceled and "several" new dramatic based shows mainly ''[[The Secret Life of the American Teenager]]'' along with several press statements that ABC Family would be focusing on more realistic shows in the future.
** ABC Family also said ''[[Kyle XY]]'' was axed due to low ratings. It is true that ratings dropped after ''Secret Life'' premiered, but ''Kyle'' was still pulling in an average of 1.5 million. That's pretty good for ABC Family, but since it wasn't ''Secret Life'''s average of 3 million, it was "low ratings" and worthy of cancellation.
* Another show that was cancelled due to [[ABC Family]]'s new "more realistic" outlook was ''[[The Middleman]]''. [[Too Good to Last|Alas]].
* Contractual obligation with the network's original founder Pat Robertson is the only thing keeping ''The 700 Club'' on ABC Family. In the meantime, the network is doing everything it can to discourage people from watching it, airing it at 11 pm and putting disclaimers before it that its views do not reflect that of the network. Some would call this entirely Justified due to Robertson's laundry list of controversial statements, especially since 9/11, making this a rare case of Screwed By The Creator.
* E!'s ''The Daily 10'' was announced for cancellation coincidentally, about a week after guest host "Psycho" Mike Catherwood made an extremely crude and lame "prison rape" joke about [[Adam Lambert]], who is openly gay. Naturally, regular hosts Catt Sadler and Sal Masakela are screwed out of a job because of what Catherwood did.
* In an example of an ''entire network'' screwing its own self, [[UPN]], a broadcast channel created by Paramount Studios that was supposed to become the new [[
** To expand on ''Enterprise'' being screwed over, an ongoing issue with the series was the fact UPN apparently had little control over what its affiliates actually aired. As a result, the series was chronically preempted in major markets in favor of local sports coverage, with ''Enterprise'' (and other UPN shows) being rescheduled to local-specific timeslots that were not counted by Nielsen ratings. UPN itself also aired a rebroadcast of ''Enterprise'' on the weekend, and this too was not counted in the Nielsens despite anecdotal evidence indicating many viewers were choosing to watch the weekend broadcast instead of the Nielsen-counted timeslot (the evidence for this is provided by series co-star Connor Trineer who, shortly before the series was cancelled, took to the pages of ''Starlog'' magazine to plead with viewers not to watch the weekend showing but instead watch the showing that counted). The fact UPN failed to achieve nationwide coverage was also blamed for the show's lower-than-expected ratings (in some markets it aired on local versions of the Home Shopping Channel!). To be fair to UPN, however, ''Enterprise'' wasn't all that popular with the Star Trek fanbase, so it's possible UPN adjusted its efforts accordingly.
* The ''[[Growing Pains (TV)|Growing Pains]]'' spin-off ''Just the Ten of Us'' was screwed by its network [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] because of politics. Although ''Just the Ten of Us'' did well in the ratings on Friday nights (and frequently won its 9:30 p.m. timeslot), ABC wanted all shows in the TGIF block to be produced by Miller-Boyett Productions (as was the case with ''[[Full House]]'', ''[[Family Matters]]'' and ''[[Perfect Strangers (TV)|Perfect Strangers]]''). Ultimately, after finding no other suitable timeslot for ''Just the Ten of Us'' in time for the 1990-91 season, the series was canceled outright and replaced by a short-lived series called ''Going Places'' (which lasted only one season).
* ''[[Caprica]]''. Very much so. For a breakdown of how it was Screwed By The Network, see [https://web.archive.org/web/20131103110032/http://www.capricatimes.com/what-syfy-isnt-telling-you-about-caprica here].
** One of the factors of ''Caprica'''s cancellation was [[Syfy]]'s decision to re-promote ''Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome'' from a webseries back into a backdoor pilot movie, and choosing to favor it alone over having two ''Battlestar'' spin-offs airing simultaneously. That was back in 2010. It has since been demoted back to a webseries, and [[Syfy]] remains noncommittal over whether or not it will even ''air'' the damn thing now, especially in light of the upreicidented amount of press coverage and fan interest generated by the leaked trailer for the premier episode, which [[Syfy]] has been sitting on for nearly two years now. Why does Syfy hate this Peabody Award-winning franchise? It's like they're determined to look as terrible as possible on the matter.
*** And now Universal is planning another reboot, as a film directed by [[Bryan Singer]]. I guess Universal just wanted space battles and lots of CGI.
Line 143 ⟶ 146:
* [[Norm MacDonald]] was fired from the "Weekend Update" segment of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' in 1997 at the insistence of NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, who claimed that Mac Donald was "not funny," despite his popularity: Norm's appearances in sketches and on "Weekend Update" were frequently greeted with [[Show Stopper|extended applause breaks]], to the extent that he once had to quiet down the [[Studio Audience]] during a mid-monologue sketch involving host [[Sarah Michelle Gellar]] by saying, [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|"Alright, I've gotta do this skit now."]] He later [[Take That|got his revenge by being asked to host SNL a couple of years later]], during which he poked fun at his firing, and said that while he still [[Self-Deprecation|wasn't funny]], it was okay because the show had gotten "really bad," thereby making him look much funnier by comparison.
* ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' had arguably already killed itself with the {{spoiler|death of Marian}}, but [[The BBC]] didn't help matters at all with its 'promotion' of the third series, which essentially amounted to one trailer for the series (and a few other episode-specific ones), and Jonas Armstrong and Joanne Froggatt guesting on ''The Paul O'Grady Show''. This [[They Just Didn't Care]] attitude culminated in the final episode being shunted to BBC Two [[Sports Preemption|in favour of tennis just hours before it went out]] (not that it mattered much, since the series had been released on DVD prematurely). Irrespective of fandom's reaction to series 3, it's hard to deny that it got a raw deal from the network.
* ''[[Central Park West]]'' is an interesting case. The show was originally a way for [[CBS]] to bounce back after their disastrous 1994-1995 season. The network threw their entire marketing clout behind the show, which was touted as the hottest and sexiest drama to ever air on a network, and bolstered it with a massive advertising campaign - huge banners on buildings, bus advertisements, commercials, you name it. For a reason only known to the executives, CPW's first two episodes were scheduled against anniversary episodes of the two biggest primetime soap operas airing at that time (''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'' and ''[[Melrose Place]]''). It also had to deal with the big affiliate shuffle in the wake of the [[
* ''[[Eleventh Hour]]''. The US Version had consistently good ratings, but was cancelled by CBS because it essentially didn't get the ratings of its lead-in ''CSI''.
* The same fate befell ''[[Unforgettable]]'' on CBS four years later; Top 20 ratings and first for the timeslot, but almost no buzz at all and it didn't do better than what ''[[The Good Wife]]'' did the previous season.
* ''Jonny Zero''. While no means a great show, it suffered at the hands of FOX as well. It was aired completely out of order and was stuck in the [[Friday Night Death Slot]].
* Let's produce [[The Cape (2010 TV series)|a comic-book superhero show]] to replace [[Heroes (TV series)|that other comic-book superhero show we had]]. Let's promote the hell out of it for two or three months in advance. Now, let's put it in a timeslot where it's directly competing against [[Being Human (USA)|this other new show that has pretty much the same audience]] on [[Syfy|that other network we own]], because we like that show a whole lot more anyway. Then, when the ratings start to smell worse than day-old roadkill, let's cancel it and only air the final episode on our website! Because hey, we're NBC, and that's how we roll.
* ''[[Friends]]'' spin-off ''[[Joey]]'' got screwed by NBC in its second season when it was moved to the timeslot opposite ''[[American Idol]]'' (a fate nearly as bad as, if not worse than, the [[Friday Night Death Slot]]) and of course its ratings soon declined considerably. Even worse, the show was suddenly cancelled mid-season with no warning, leaving eight episodes unaired in the U.S. The only way to see them (other than downloading them of course) is to import the somewhat pricey season 2 DVD from Canada.
* ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' was initially saved by FOX, as they kept it around a year longer then they planned to because of its critical acclaim, but they soon screwed it over by changing its timeslot constantly and barely giving it any advertising.
Line 153 ⟶ 156:
* ''[[Jack and Bobby]]'' wasn't treated very favorably by the ''[[The WB]]'' It was hardly advertised at all compared to most of the networks other shows, and after winter break, there was NO advance warning of any new episodes airing, so unless you used an episode guide, you'd NEVER know the show was even still on. To be fair it did get a much more significant amount of advertising towards the end of the season, but the damage was already done as the ratings were far too low for it to have a chance of being renewed. Also ''[[Jack and Bobby]]'' wasn't an exactly an easy show to sell based on marketing, from the ads it looked like a typical WB teen drama, but the commercials didn't even hint at the story of Bobby being president in the future(being told through flashforwards) People looking for a teen drama were caught off guard by the political storyline, and those who didn't mind the politics didn't watch the show because it didn't look too different from every other teen drama on the network. In the end the show's unique premise was its undoing, maybe it would've lasted longer without the future storyline.
* ''Hope and Faith'' was still getting decent ratings in its third season despite being scheduled opposite ''[[American Idol]]'' but ABC cancelled it anyways so they could make room for an expanded version of ''[[Dancing With the Stars]]''
* [[The WB]] was quick to cancel ''Run Of The House''. So quick that the show didn't even to get to finish its first and only season (the last few episodes were only ever aired overseas) it wasn't like the shows ratings were that bad either, after all it had ''[[What I Like About You]]'' as a lead-in.
** ''Twins'' and ''Related'' were also victims of this. Really, WB was almost as infamous as FOX for cancelling shows left and right, and now [[The CW]] seems to be following in they're footsteps, given how badly they screwed over ''Reba'', the highest-rated show on The WB.
* ABC screwed over ''Jake In Progress'' after its second season premiere by replacing its timeslot with ''[[The Bachelor]]'' and cancelling the show a few short months afterwards, leaving eight episodes unaired, ABC cited lackluster ratings in the premiere as its reason, it also screwed over ''Emily's Reasons Why Not'' by cancelling it after only one episode for the same reason, while 6 million viewers isn't a whole lot for a premiere, it hardly seems like a good enough reason for cancelling both of those shows, it seems more like ABC just wanted an excuse to cancel the shows so it could fill the timeslots with more of they're ''[[Lowest Common Denominator]]'' reality shows.
* [[The WB]] screwed over ''[[Birds of Prey (TV series)|Birds of Prey]]'' by trying to turn it into ''[[Smallville]]'':
** WAY too much Helena/Reese, too little Barbara/Dinah.
** [[The WB]] ordered the pilot to be completely reshot just weeks before airtime (The original pilot -- now available as an extra on the DVD release -- was deemed by the network to be "too dark".)
** Network moved show from Toronto to L.A., thereby putting a serious crimp in its budget.
** MASSIVE [[Executive Meddling]].
** End Result: Dead Show, Dead Network.
* CBS notoriously did this to an ENTIRE GENRE of television programs. Between 1970 and 1972, in what would later be called "The Rural Purge," the network cancelled most of their sitcoms and dramas focusing on country life or country folks living in the city. ''[[Petticoat Junction]]'', ''[[The Beverly Hillbillies]]'', ''[[Green Acres]]'', ''Mayberry RFD'', ''[[Lassie (TV series)|Lassie]]'', and ''[[Hee Haw]]'' were among the shows that got their pink slips during this period as networks began to move away from rural settings to more modern shows set in suburbia and aimed at a younger demographic, such as ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'' and ''[[All in The Family]]''.
** Pat Buttram (Mr. Haney on ''[[Green Acres]]'') famously said 1971 was "the year CBS killed everything with a tree in it."
*** 1971 was also when CBS canned ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]''.
*** It's true that CBS did cancel a number of shows, some of which were still popular. But in the network's defense, the shows they brought in to replace the cancelled shows included ''[[All in The Family]]'', ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'', ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]'', ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]'', ''[[Maude]]'', ''[[Good Times]]'', ''[[One Day At a Time]]'', and ''[[The Jeffersons]]''.
** Essentially, this bookends NBC's cancellation of ''[[Star Trek]]''- Nielsen's demographic breakdowns of a show's ratings had become more specific between 1968 and 1971, thus if Trek's early demise (good demos but low overall ratings) was the '''before''', the 1971 CBS Rural Purge (of shows with good overall numbers but lousy 18-to-49 ones) was the '''after'''.
* ''[[Lie to Me (TV series)|Lie to Me]]'' was continuously screwed by [[
* ABC screwed over ''[[My Wife and Kids]]'' by cancelling it after the creators had already been promised another season, thus ending the series on a cliffhanger as a result (though [[Word of God]]'s explanation for what would've happened next season lessens the blow somewhat).
* ''[[The Good Guys]]'' was a comedy on Fox featuring the uptight but ambitious Detective Jack Baily and the relic of the 80's, Detective Dan Stark. It featured colorful characters, plenty of action, a great sense of humor, a low budget, and rather good reviews. However it was given the [[Friday Night Death Slot]] at the end of the summer of 2010 and was cancelled later in the year.
* ''[[Boomtown]]'' was an interesting experiment. It featured numerous characters, overlapping storylines, out-of-order timelines, and unusual visual techniques. It could conceivably have caught on as a cult show but unfortunately it didn't find an audience. NBC deserves credit for trying something different and for bringing the low-rated show back for a second season. However, it loses that credit for its attempts to "fix" the series in its second season. It removed all of the elements that made the series interesting and essentially remade it into another typical cop show, which ended up getting cancelled anyway.
* ''[[Moesha]]'' was a very tragic example, as the execs at UPN were the ones that demanded the infamous storyline of Frank's infidelity and Dorian being his son, the series creator strongly objected to the storyline and the [[Retool]] of the show and was let go. The ratings sharply declined following the introduction of the infidelity plot, and then [[It Got Worse]]-UPN cancelled the show on the SAME day that the cliffhanger season finale aired, leaving many loose-ends unresolved (they were supposed to be resolved on the spin-off ''[[The Parkers]]'', but that never happened, presumably due to Brandy Norwood getting tired of her character and the show) it's like they had already made up their minds about what they were going to do to the show before the season had ended.
** Ironically the show that replaced ''Moesha'' - ''[[One On One]]'' - ended up suffering almost the exact same fate ([[Executive Meddling]] during the last season, an unresolved cliffhanger) after the UPN/WB merger, the CW cancelled ''[[One On One]]'' a mere THREE days after the network's debut, the CW execs claimed they intended to renew the show but simply couldn't find a spot for it on their schedule, which sounds like a really lame excuse. It's obvious the CW was more interested in focusing all their attention on the shows carried over from [[The WB]] while barely giving the UPN shows the time of day, so the execs more then likely cancelled ''[[One On One]]'' just so they could free up space for they're new shows.
* ''[[Eureka]]'' was screwed over by [[Syfy]]. They ordered what was supposed to be a sixth season - the final one - with six episodes. A week later, they then cancelled the show and took back the season six order, leaving the writers scrambling to wrap up the series.
* Fans of ''[[Lois and Clark]]'' had no reason to suspect Season 4 would be its last, as 4 and 5 had been confirmed for some time as part of a single contract deal. Then ABC got both new Disney ownership and leadership who wanted the timeslot for a revival of ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', and the contract was reneged on, leaving the cliffhanger unresolved and the hasty removal of "To be continued..." over the last scene.
Line 191 ⟶ 194:
** One [[My Network TV]] station in northwest Florida(its sister station) barely aired it in a good timeslot, but it failed...
* [[Game Show]] and [[Reality Show|reality shows]], in so many ways.
** Of the five series of ''[[Would I Lie to You?]]'', it has never once held the same timeslot twice; it has bounced from Saturday at 10PM, Friday at 9PM, Monday at 10:30PM, Friday at 10:35PM, Friday at 9:30PM. And it's been announced that the sixth series will be airing before the watershed, at 8:30PM.
** While the screwing may not have been deliberate, ''[[The Mole (TV series)|The Mole]]'' fell victim in Season 5 when ABC's marketing department did so little to promote the show that even many die-hard fans were completely unaware that the show had returned for the first third of the season.
** This is thought to be the cause of Carol Vorderman's 2008 departure from British game ''[[Countdown]]'': When the show's budget was going to be cut by 33%, Vorderman was willing to take a 33% salary cut as well. But Channel Four allegedly went up to her and said what boiled down to "We're going to take off a trailing zero from your salary next year. Take it or leave it, you have two days to respond." Note that Vorderman's about as famous in Britain as Vanna White and Bob Barker are in America, as she was on ''Countdown'' from its 1982 debut.
** ''[[Duel (TV series)|Duel]]'' was bumped to the [[Friday Night Death Slot]] for Season 2, against ''[[The Price Is Right]] $1,000,000 Spectacular'' (itself a death sentence for any game show).
** ''Million-Dollar Mind Game'', a well-liked quiz imported from Russia and intended for primetime with good...well, everything...was sat on by ABC for some time before being slapped on Sunday afternoons against NFL games (a timeslot usually used for awful time-buy motocross events and '''[[Infomercial|infomercials]]!''') with [[Invisible Advertising|minimal promotion]], and instead chose to focus on promoting and giving ''[[You Deserve It]]'' primetime space. The result? '''The burn-off got ''better'' ratings!'''
** The original (1957-64) nighttime version of ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' flourished Wednesdays at 8:30 PM on NBC, making it the top-rated primetime game show. In 1961, the sponsors wanted to tinker with it so NBC moved the show to Mondays at 8:30. Ratings slid, so a year later the show got moved to 9:30 PM Mondays, opposite ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]''. ''Price'' hemorrhaged ratings, so on February 1, 1963 it was moved to Fridays at 9:30. NBC wanted a show that attracted a younger audience than ''Price'' sponsors wanted, so they optioned the sitcom ''Harry's Girls'' to replace ''Price'' that Fall. [[Network to the Rescue|ABC stepped in]] and acquired both versions of ''Price'' for an amount NBC wasn't willing to match. The move was costly, though, as ABC couldn't afford the nighttime show in color and not every market had an ABC affiliate (48 markets aired ''Price'' on their CBS station). Nighttime ended in September 1964, and daytime a year later.
** NBC head Lin Bolen became the enemy of fans for her insistence on ousting games hosted by middle-aged men on technologically-obsolete sets.
*** When CBS lifted its ban on big-ticket giveaway shows in September 1972 and introduced three games, ''[[Concentration]]'' fell victim to ''[[The Price Is Right|The New Price Is Right]]''.
Line 204 ⟶ 207:
*** ''[[Russian Roulette (TV series)|Russian Roulette]]'' was similarly screwed, though it perished due to the network's rebranding which killed all the original programming (including ''Lingo'') at the time.
** ''Forever Eden'', a rare example of a [[Reality Show]] getting screwed, FOX changed its timeslot repeatedly with little advance warning and cancelled the show mid-season before a winner was even announced.
** FOX screwed over both ''[[Greed (TV series)|Greed]]'' and ''It's Your Chance of a Lifetime'' because the current network president hated game shows. ''Chance'' got it the worst because it was barely advertised, and what little advertisement there was only appeared mere days before the show was due to air. ''Chance'' was supposed to become a regular weekly series, contestants were being interviewed and everything, and FOX just pulled the plug for no reason whatsoever. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120407164123/http://www.fortunecity.com/business/shares/1385/id2.htm Full details here.]
** ''[[The Chamber]]'' also got screwed by FOX, as it was rushed to air ahead of time to compete with ABC's ''[[The Chair]]'' and ended up getting labeled a rip-off as a result (it's unknown which show began production first)...and then Fox canned it after only airing half of the six shows taped.
** CBS screwed over the American ''[[Winning Lines]]'' by only airing it Saturday nights with seemingly no consistent timeslot, causing the ratings to plummet.
** CBS also screwed ''[[Password|Million Dollar Password]]'' by cancelling it simply because it didn't hit their target demographic, despite the fact that it frequently pulled the highest ratings in its timeslot.
** NBC's 2000 revival of ''[[
** Many daytime game shows whose network was run by Fred Silverman.
* ''[[The Hard Times of RJ Berger]]'', the best live-action show MTV has had in ''years'', began with a large viewer rating of 2.6 million viewers, but dropped drastically by the second season, causing the show to be cancelled.
Line 214 ⟶ 217:
* ''[[Less Than Perfect]]'' was royally screwed by ABC during it's final year, first ABC shortened it's season 4 order from 22 episodes to 13 despite solid ratings for the previous season, then the season was delayed until April. Then [[It Got Worse]], only 5 out of 13 episodes were aired, the next two episodes scheduled to air were both pre-empted by NBA games and ABC unceremoniously cancelled the show without giving any explanation whatsoever.
* [[Disney Channel]] is infamous for screwing over their popular shows, thanks to their 65-episode only rule. Shows screwed by the network:
** ''[[Lizzie McGuire]]'', which helped put the Disney Channel back on the map, was cancelled after fulfilling its 65-show order.
** ''[[Even Stevens]]'', also a victim of the 65-episode rule.
** ''[[Kim Possible]]'' was first cancelled after fulfilling it's 65-episode order, [[Uncanceled|but was brought back for another season by outraged fans.]]
** ''[[Phil of the Future]]'', which was cancelled well before the 65-episode mark, much to the confusion and dismay of fans. The reason Disney gave the cast was that since the show was so popular (and making them so much money), they had a choice: produce a third season of the show or use the money to create another show with the potential to be just as popular. They chose the latter and despite many fans to save the show, the show remained cancelled.
* CBS screwed over ''[[The New Adventures of Old Christine]]'' in
* ''[[Spooks]]'' got this bad during its two runs on cable TV in the United States. It first landed on A&E at a time when the network was in the process of [[Network Decay|decaying]] from its original image as a home for British imports into the reality hive it is today. After getting decent midweek slots for series one and two, the network decided to push series three to Saturdays at 10 to make room for reality in that midweek slot. Ratings suffered, but A&E was already locked into a contract for series four. So, they pulled repeats off the schedule during the long hiatus between series, and dumped series four on Fridays at 11, where the ratings dropped so hard, so fast that it was pulled after two weeks.
** That said, at least the network bothered to burn off the rest of series four (in Saturday afternoon marathon form). The show wouldn't get that chance at BBC America, who restarted the show's run at series one. This time at least, the show would maintain a midweek slot for its entire run. Unfortunately, the third series found it in competition against ''[[American Idol]]'', which helped drain away a lot of viewers from the show (as ''Idol'' was prone to do to all shows at the time). The fourth series actually premiered against the gigantic ''Idol'' finale that year, and the numbers never recovered during the subsequent summer run, which led to BBCA pulling it after the fourth episode, never to return to cable TV in the US.
*** Luckily, [[PBS]] would pull a [[Network to the Rescue]] by contracting most of its affiliates to carry the show. As of this writing, the first nine series have aired in their entirety, and this troper's PBS station is re-airing the earlier episodes while presumably waiting for series ten to become available in America. That plus the fact that, unlike the cable runs, the episodes are aired in their entirety (the cable runs cut them to fit into hour-long slots with commercials), has made for a far more satisfactory viewing experience.
* ''[[The Finder]]'' looked to have it pretty good, ''[[Bones]]'' creator Hart Hanson
* [[CBS]] in 1979 cancelled ''[[Wonder Woman (TV series)|Wonder Woman]]'' and ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and never went forward on the ''[[Doctor Strange]]'' and ''[[Captain America]]'' pilots not because their ratings were poor because they didn't want to be seen as "The [[Superhero]] Network." Only ''[[The Incredible Hulk (TV series)|The Incredible Hulk]],'' survived.
* ''Headbanger's Ball'' was a popular show that aired Saturday nights on [[MTV]] beginning in 1987. The Ball (as it was nicknamed by its fans) aired for two hours and played hard rock, [[Heavy Metal]], and [[Hair Metal]] music videos. The show also featured interviews with musicians as well as "road trip" specials where the cast of the show would accompany bands to various locations around the world. It was one of the most popular shows on [[MTV]] and for a while was one of the network's flagship shows. The show even remained popular during the 1990s, when alternative rock and hip-hop became the most popular genres of music. But in January of 1995, ''Headbanger's Ball'' was abruptly canceled without warning. The host of the show, Riki Rachtman, was called by the network and informed that he would not need to come into work the following week. Fans of the show were outraged and to this day many of them consider the cancellation of the Ball to be the moment when MTV [[Jumped the Shark]]. MTV has never explained their reason for canceling the show. ''Headbanger's Ball'' was [[Uncanceled]] in 2003, but many believe that the new version of show to be inferior to its predecessor.
{{tropesubpagefooter}}
| |||