The last couple of weeks networks have been making a lot of announcements about shows that are canceled or renewed for last year. There are always someone's favorites that are going to be canceled. And especially these days there's usually an outcry for another network or streaming service to pick the show up. But thinking about it, I wondered: how many times has that ever worked?
As a caveat, I'm not counting when for instance FX moves a show like Archer, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, or The League to FXX since they're owned by the same company. I think for the most part Supergirl's move to the CW was the same kind of thing. That's more like a show being demoted, not picked up by a new network.
Most of the time it seems like the show in question gets one season on its new home and then canceled again. ABC picked Scrubs off waivers from NBC. It had one season (with several cast changes) before being canceled again. Yahoo! picked up Community off waivers from NBC. It had one season (also with several cast changes) before being canceled--or fans would say that was the plan for "six seasons and a movie." Hulu picked up The Mindy Project from Fox. It had a season (or two?) and then was canceled again.
Probably the most successful example I can think of is when TBS picked American Dad up on waivers from Fox. They're on I think their 4th season on TBS since then. I'm not sure if they're going to have a 5th season (or 14th overall) but I suppose at some point there will be an announcement. I think in part the reason this transfer worked is besides no cast turnover, TBS already showed American Dad reruns and a lot of Family Guy reruns. So you already had an audience there; you're just providing them with new episodes.
Futurama being revived by Comedy Central a couple of years after being canceled (for good) by Fox was pretty much the same thing. Comedy Central was I think already showing reruns, so they already had an audience in place. Between that and less expectation and pressure being on basic cable, it also had about 4 seasons on Comedy Central.
Since I've been watching it a bit on Pluto TV the last six months or so, another of the more successful network jumps was when Mystery Science Theater 3000 went from Comedy Central to Sci-Fi Channel--as it was then known. It lasted 3 seasons before it was canceled for good. Even though I don't think Sci-Fi had been showing reruns before then, you did certainly have a sympathetic audience already in place.
Besides the cast changes, when a show switches to a new network you're usually asking them to watch a channel they may not be used to watching. I think in part that's why some of these other shows don't succeed. I mean you're basically putting it in front of a new audience but asking them to already know what's going on. Sure a lot of people will probably switch, but not all and considering the ratings were already low enough for one network to cancel, there's not a huge margin of error.
It doesn't give me a lot of hope for Brooklyn Nine-Nine moving to NBC or Last Man Standing being picked up by Fox--the latter after a year off the air. I think that one's renewal had to do with the Roseanne revival making execs think there's a market for pro-Trump sitcoms. Time will tell, I guess.
But you know what they say: hope springs eternal. Any more examples you can think to add to the list?
1 comment:
I think it's just ridiculous that so many times when a show gets canceled people online get uppity and demand it goes to another network or service...those shows were canceled for a reason. If people were really that upset about it, they should have watched the show in the first place.
I've been telling people since last fall that if you want a show to get renewed, you have to watch it in a way that your viewing counts. That means watching it live or within 48 hours of it airing live on a legal streaming service such as Hulu, or the network's website, or your DVR. That's how they record their numbers. Watching it six months later on your DVR doesn't help, nor does illegally downloading or streaming it from a pirate site. People expect to be entertained but they tend to forget that you have to pay for entertainment...making a TV show or movie isn't free (same applies to music, writing, or other forms of creative art).
With Brooklyn 99, there was a HUGE outcry that it was canceled, and it was subsequently picked up by NBC...but I don't understand why. It was the lowest rated of Fox's active comedy shows (only New Girl was lower, but it was airing it's previously announced final season, and The Exorcist, but it's a drama and already canned) with only a 0.73 in the key demo and only 1.75 million viewers that counted for the metrics and its viewership was DOWN 17% over the previous year. NBC adding it to their schedule, looking at their numbers this season, STILL has the series ranked at the bottom of the heap and it's demo number ranks it with AP Bio, which did get renewed despite being near the bottom, but AP Bio also has TWICE Brooklyn 99's viewers...I don't know where NBC is thinking they are going to get double the people watching a show starting on its 6th season but good luck to them. Here's the numbers:
https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/fox-2017-18-season-ratings/
Picking up a canceled series somewhere else just doesn't make sense...sometimes it is better to just let a show go and find a new series to enjoy.
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