Networks Owe Nothing to Cancelled Series

Heroes is DEAD! Woohoo!
Heroes has finally been put out of its misery by NBC, about three seasons too late.

Now NBC is considering ordering two or even four more hours to wrap-up the show’s loose ends.

Huh?

The internets is buzzing with the news of Heroes cancellation, making it seem like Fox has cancelled American Idol or CBS has cancelled NCIS (the two highest rated shows on television).

Double huh?

If American Idol and NCIS are at one end of the spectrum, Heroes is easily on the other. After it’s incredible, inspired, and Emmy-nominated first season, Heroes collapsed farther, faster, and harder than any popular TV series ever did.

Fans deflected, critics laughed at it, and the ratings showed it. It was weak even by NBC’s standards. Yet people are up in arms over its cancellation (though just as much as people are rejoicing about it). Where have all these people been when the show needed the ratings? The ratings sucked, plain and simple.

Yet NBC is considering giving the series the opportunity to wrap everything up with a nice little bow.

How lucky for Heroes. If it pans out, they should be more than grateful to NBC because cancelled shows usually don’t get that chance. And why would they?

Shows are cancelled for many different reasons, they may not get the ratings, the cost isn’t justified by the low numbers, the show has run it’s course, or it is an embarrassment to the company. Whatever the reason(s) may be, a network will have to let it go.

Unless DirecTV or TNT can swoop in on a silver horse. (And don’t expect Jericho and Subway-Chuck type gimmicks to work all the time either. (99% of the time, they won’t).

By the real crazy part of all of this is, Why would you give a very low rated, widely panned series a chance to do more damage to your schedule?

And what does Tim Kring and the rest of the Heroes gang have on NBC execs that past NBC shows and shows on other networks didn’t have when they were all unceremoniously yanked off the air without so much as a notice to tack on even a haphazard ending to the final episode.

I know what they had that Heroes doesn’t… a bigger number of viewers and fans. Back when the threshold for cancellation was higher, even at NBC, shows were just easily taken off the schedule never to be heard from again. Did NBC care to show the already produced 7-minute epilogue for American Dreams? No. Did ABC care to give Bryan Fuller and Barry Sonnenfeld the chance to wrap-up Pushing Daisies? Nope. How about all the other series that have been cancelled in the past? Nuh,uh.

So what is the big deal?
Networks do not and never have had an obligation to wrap things up nicely. “They owe it to the fans of the show?” Umm… not really. Unless the fans want to pay for the epilogue.

But how about… “They owe it to the few remaining fans that have stuck with the show this long!”
Yes, let’s shell out millions of dollars to please the few remaining fans.

No thanks.

As someone who’s seen their favorites disappear before I felt like it was their time, you can’t look past the facts. And the facts are these [/PushingDaisies], No one was watching your show, it’s time to cut it loose!

Now, if any series deserved the chance to tie up loose ends, then it’s Law & Order. How Chuck can survive another season and Heroes be given the red carpet for a TV movie while Law & Order, with all its history backing it up, get kicked out the door is the beyond me. Especially when you see all three got the same pitiful numbers!

I’m not saying networks should be giving fans the cold shoulder, but let’s be honest, if they aren’t going to throw a farewell party to a show like Law & Order, then other lesser shows should be given the same lack of courtesy.

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