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{{trope}}
''Sometimes, viewers are so afraid that shows will be [[Screwed
The [[Firefly]] Effect refers to viewers being afraid of committing to a new series because they don't believe the series will last long enough to make up for the investment of time and emotions. "The network is just going to cancel this, so I'm not giving it my heart." If enough viewers think this way towards a particular TV series, it may become a [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]] -- people don't watch because they think the show will be canceled, and then the show is cancelled ''because'' no one is watching it.
[[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Television executives]] don't tend to want to invest in intelligent or overly complex series, because they worry that the given show will be less popular, (and thus draw in less money from ratings) if [[Viewers are Morons|viewers are required to use their brains]]. As well as the Trope Namer ''Firefly'', ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' was a quintessential example of this trope. It had an initial premise which was very similar to that of Firefly in some respects, and although the show didn't get cancelled, said initial premise was basically scrapped; as well as the series being made a lot less intelligent, and more violent. Jeri Ryan was initially intended to be brought to the show as an exploitative element due to her figure, which ended up backfiring due to the fact that, as well as being beautiful, she turned out to be a very talented actress.
This trope usually only applies to science fiction, or anything similar which is likely to be weird, non-mainstream, or otherwise cause the suits to worry that it won't rate well. It can be a real problem for all the ''[[Lost]]'' clones and other [[Ontological Mystery|Ontological Mysteries]], which aren't worth watching if they don't get more than one season, and especially if they don't even get a full season -- and they often don't. That is also the sort of TV shows most likely to be hit by this effect, but it can hit ''any'' show that makes it clear upfront that you need to be ''involved'' in the characters or the overarching plot to make sense of the show in the long run. That demand up front plus the uncertainty that there will ''be'' a long run allows [[The Chris Carter Effect]] to start before the TV show does, meaning the fans never ''start'' watching...
In contrast, people ''usually'' don't think that they'll get overly attached to Crime [[Police Procedural|procedurals]], [[
Even some shows that seemed feasible only over one (22-ep) season (such as ''[[Reunion]]'', ''[[Day Break]]'', ''[[Kidnapped
Incidentally, many of these shows (including [[Trope Namers]] ''[[Firefly]]'') were on [[
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