OK, it’s a slow Thursday afternoon and I’m in the mood for some fun. I want to create a “fan excuse” bingo card (hat tip to commenter Holly for the final push to motivate me) for posting on the site, but I want to get folks suggestions.
Here are some initial suggestions just to prime the pump, but let me hear yours. Depending on how many good ones there are I may make a series of cards.
Sample excuses for failed shows:
It wasn’t promoted enough.
It was on the wrong day / time.
Network XYZ is run by morons.
It did better than [the show that previously failed] in that timeslot.
It has good reviews.
It needs time to grow.
It’s a niche show.
It has great average viewership.
It beat Leno.
My favorite:
It’s too intellegent for most people/people are too stupid to get it
nielsen is an antiquated system
it gets a lot of dvr viewers
it’s number one on iTunes
people are too stupid to get it
i could go on, but I don’t want to be a hog…
How about “It ran opposite [insert name of ratings juggernaut]“? Like American Idol and so forth. Sort of a yin to “It beat Leno”’s yang.
my dog ate the remote…
No one watches on TV anymore, they all watch online!
Everyone I know watches it! Nielsen’s must be wrong!
It’s really popular in other countries
Wait till Summer Glau guest stars
it has great bluray/dvd sales.
It built on its lead-in!
Friday night is bad for TV shows.
It has great retention from its lead-in
Network executive XYZ hates fans and canceled the show to spite us!
But it promotes awareness of a great cause!
Did you get “Such-and-such movie opened against it?” If so, I think you pretty much got all the big ones covered. (Though do make sure to check Whedonesque regularly, as you’ll never know what those tin-foil-hatistas will blame next for why nobody will watch the godlike creations created by their god.)
But just to be on the safe side, let’s not complete the list B-4 “C***k” is canned. After “C***k” is canned, I’m sure you’ll be seeing around 20 to 30 new ones created. Just for the occasion.
KHAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!
It was moved to a bad time slot (Samantha Who?)
The fans will boycott the network.
Producers won’t want to pitch their show to the network because they cancel *everything*.
It was #1 in the (insert ridiculous/small demo) demographic
1) It would do better if [insert name of show] before didn’t bring it down;
2) If it was on [insert day] instead of [insert day] it would do a lot better
3) Nielsen families aren’t really representative of true fans of the show
Okay…maybe I should heed Rob and not be a hog.
It aired on a holiday! No one watches TV on [Halloween, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Flag Day]!
they ran the episodes out of order
An Obama address knocked it off the schedule and killed momentum (used for Better Off Ted, too!)
too long of a hiatus between episodes
It would be doing great if the network completely changed its entire schedule just to save this one show that isn’t even produced by that network.
The DVD set is #1 in (insert ridiculous/small category) on Amazon.
It won the XYZ award.
It won a People’s Choice Award! (Ah, Moonlight. I’m beginning to miss your crazy fans.)
The shows star won a (insert award here)
It was delayed by football!
Oh, duh. How could I forget the immortal “But me and all my friends are illegally stealing it off the torrent sites!”
how about, the networks are misguided to focus on the 18-49 demo! People 50+ have more money!
If Jay Leno hadn’t had the actors/actresses on his show it would have done a lot better (what the hell, we blame Jay for everything else.)
It targets A18-34, and I don’t know anyone that age (myself included) who still even owns a TV.
The star has lots of followers on Twitter.
Michael J, a better Leno blame:
Leno is dragging down all of NBC because there’s no one watching their promos at 10 anymore!
It has legions of fans who will go to every convention, buy merchandise, write fan fiction, spend hours blogging, and host watching parties in their homes.
Fit that in a bingo square!
The Network will keep it to keep (insert show creator’s name here) happy
idizzle made this list when I first brought it up:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/09/26/tv-ratings-dollhouse-brothers-bomb-on-fox-cbs-wins-night/28502#comment-125880
It was a trending topic on Twitter
Oh, make sure to spell it Neilson, you know, the correct way.
It was the #1 trending topic on twitter the hour it aired!
It would have gained momentum if the network had stuck with it and allowed it to build its audience.
TSCC – The new Terminator Movie will spark interest
I like it Julia.
How about: It’s an election year.
The networks cancel shows too quickly, look at Cheers! It started off week and it became one of NBC’s top shows at the time!
If they just air a lot of repeats over the summer, it will gain a lot of viewers for next season.
It’s a “trending topic” on Twitter. (The next 13-year-old who writes that in my presence is getting bitch-slapped in the most humiliating way possible.)
It never got time to build an audience during its 5 season run.
“The network intentionally wants it to fail.”
“ABC/Fox/CBS/NBC/The CW never give new shows a chance to succeed.”
“It wasn’t on last week, and the one week break erased everyone’s memory of its existence.”
“The DVD sales will be amazing!”
For Friday shows – “[Name of any opening movie] opened and hurt viewership.”
For non-CW shows – “It did better than [name of any CW show that hasn't been canceled].”
My favorite comment ever on this website was something like “It’s a high quality show, but it’s a chore to watch” that someone wrote about “Kings.” That was hilarious!
It should have been a 42 min. show instead of 22 min.
No show ever does well there.
The show sold out.
The head writer is an idiot.
The show was to risqué for the christian mainstream.
Because Jerry Seinfeld canceled it!
It would have done better but for the tough audience.
OMG! Great answers everyone! Hysterical! LOL
It’s the best performing low rated show on the network.
its numbers went up in the finals!
TNT would take it in a second.
It was the subject of a “onemillionmoms.com” campaign! Ok, maybe this isn’t one of the most popular ones, but I got here late!
Damnit, I got sniped. (But I’m glad you guys agree with me.) Change that last one to…
Alex O’Loughlin is hot, and vampires are hot, and Alex O’Loughlin is hot. Did I mention Alex O’Loughlin is hot? If those idiots at CBS hadn’t cancelled the show, Alex O’Loughlin would have been hotter than ever. WHAT? Did that bitch Nina Tassler just say that we gals were only actor-centric fans? HOW DARE SHE!!!! LET’S KILL HER!!!! OMG, Alex O’Loughlin is so hot! Where’s my vibrator??!!
It was ahead of the curve. If it comes back now it will be a hit.
lmao @ Riff
kind of stealing romo’s answer here, but “it’ll be picked up by another network and then NBC/CBS/ABC/CW/Fox will be sorry!”
It would have done better if Oprah talked about it on her show.
But this weeks episode got a 1.0 demo instead of the .8 it got last week!
Oh, my favorite excuse from the Pushing Daisies days:
Everyone knows that there’s church on Wednesdays so any family show is going to fail if it’s on Wednesdays!
The free spot in the center HAS to be “Dawn Ostroff”.
If the writers had focused more on this character instead of that character it would have been a hit.
The network didn’t give the horde of overseas fans the chance to keep up by paying for the show instead of pirating it.
There’s….
“But nobody watches TV on Friday/Saturday night! How can you expect it to get good ratings!”
“Maybe if it would have gotten moved to after (insert ratings juggernaut here)then it would do way better”
“This is not a failed show! (Insert equally floundering show on the same network) is doing way worse!”
(Insert network) will be really sorry. I’m not ever watching anything on that channel again if they cancel this show!”
“Maybe if people stop watching other shows then they will get bad ratings and (random network) won’t have a reason to cancel my show.”
“But (insert average performing show) costs (insert network) a huge amount of money for poor ratings. My show is much cheaper so they should save my show.”
I would come up with more seeing that I have an arsenal from absolutely rabid fanboys/fangirls from another site but those quotes are really best suited for ’shows that are already cancelled but the fanboys/fangirls can’t let it go even though there’s no chance it will ever come back anywhere.’
“The early cancellation scoop from Lanie Grace killed it ”
The comments on TVbytheNumbers by Bill and Rob killed it.
NBC gave a full season to Mercy! Any show doing as good (or at least nearly) as Mercy on another network is obviously successful!
“It didn’t have enough internet buzz “
The Network Press Release says the show is doing well
Alternatively: It has great internet buzz!
I love the renew/cancel index here but I can clearly see someone using this.
“Your saying that (insert show) this going to get cancelled every week is scaring new people away from wanting to watch the show!”
The lead-in is dragging it down.
It’s on NBC and everybody’s boycotting NBC because of Leno.
I get bad reception for CBS when we switched to digital.
For the truly delusional (ala “Moonlight”):
“According to this obscure poll that I created on a website of which no one has ever heard that allows anyone to vote an unlimited number of times, it’s the #1 new show. Why isn’t anyone talking about that? BECAUSE THEY’RE BIASED AGAINST MY SHOW!”
Jay Leno has completely thrown off the axis of television as a whole. He, as well as NBC and somehow Ben Silverman, are responsible for every cancellation of any show on any network ever.
“Accountants run Networks ” …..
Fans will abandon the network if ___ cancels this!
They just want to replace it with more cheap reality
” BTW …It was Jai Leno faults as well as for international crisis “
The show didn’t have Heather Locklear
well…… Jay Leno…. enough said
But it my country’s biggest hit! In entire history of Kyrgyzstanian television!
Daylight Savings Time made the ratings drop!
FOX didn’t put it on after “American Idol!” It failed because it’s SMART and the only shows that are successful on TV are shows for morons! Like “American Idol!” But I’m still mad that they didn’t put this SMART show on after the show for morons, “American Idol!”
The evil Dawn Ostroff mistreated it by ONLY giving it 7 seasons! (Nick C used that one with “Gilmore Girls.” I’d like to hope he was being sarcastic. But I know he wasn’t.)
It would be great on cable.
Or …It would be great in direcy dvd market
*direct
We’re still on Daylight time. People are still outdoors at that hour.
Did I mention Jay Leno ?
It’s not winter yet. Surely people will discover it when they’re snowed in.
It was the Letterman scandal.
It can’t be edgy/racy/violent/whatever enough on broadcast
The ratings would be phenomenal for SyFy.
This time it’s really down to the hardcore dedicated fan audience and it cannot possibly lose any more. They should build on this. (every week after new lows)
But Bryan Singer is coming back!
NBC fucked up by not giving this horribly rated show they do not even produce the post Superbowl slot. Who needs advertising revenue?
But really in 80% of cases it comes down to either “whawhahwa, why are other networks also programming this night” and “America is stupid”.
it was much better when the storyline of [very small number of episodes]was not revolving around the main character
If you factor in foreign rights, DVDs, and itunes, it might be profitable.
It was fault of writers strike !!!
“The network WANTED it to fail.”
“People didn’t want to commit to watch because they were afraid it would be cancelled.”
“It’s (highly promoted episode) sucked, and wasn’t representative of its regular vibe.”
“I never saw commercials for it.”
“It doesn’t repeat well.”
“Reality tv killed it.”
“There wernt enough other shows on (network) that failed, so that they would HAVE to bring it back.”
… and can we use stuff that networks, not just fans, say? If so…
“It was just too dark and gritty for broadcast.”
We have 1000000000000000 sings for our “Safe XYZ” online petition!!!!!
You guys are just “haters”
It does great internationally
It was too “inside”
It sells well at iTunes
Just wait until the DVD sales numbers come out. They are going to sell 500,000 copies its first week! The network will be sorry!!!
It was up against (insert another network’s HUGE show). It never stood a chance.
It’s the only new drama that survived from last year. (Castle)
One of the best : It was fault of illegal download
Or alternative : It was one of the most downloaded show in the P2P history !
“It beat Leno” should be the Free spot in the center.
HGTV has a good lineup that night.
FOX hate Josh Friedman
If it wasn’t for the damn Internet…
It was doing 0.001 point rating better then Dollhouse and Dollhouse is still alive !!!!
It was too daring for the flyovers.
From an ABC press release:
“Ugly Betty built on its Adult 18-49 lead-in to defeat Fox’s established drama Dollhouse in the 9 o’clock hour by 50% (1.2/4 vs. 0.8/3)”
“It beat Sons of Anarchy most of the time.”
“DirectTV should have made a deal to save it.”
“The show would have done better if the writing/actors/premise was better.”
“They can’t cancel this XYZ because they already cancelled ZYX.”
“It’s on NBC/CW. No one watches any of their other shows either.”
for the next post may I suggest a .. Cancelled Show ” fan retaliation” bingo card ?
… I will never watch network XYZ again !!!
But tvbythenumbers said it would be renewed!
wow Tommy they used their best weapon against “panzer Dollhouse”
)
( I would like to know the amount of money the guy who wrote this BS get every month
How could they cancel a show with 10 million viewers?!?
People were turned off by the premiere episode, but it got so much better after that one!
damn joos
Or : the first 7 episodes were not so good but improved a lot in the last 6 !!!
it was too real for the masses
Nobody watches TV on Friday nights at 10:00. They are all doing yardwork and drinking lemonade!
It won a Sherman Award! That’s all the proof you need!
They can’t cancel it because Josh Weldon is a god!
Or : it was too “right wing/left wing” for America
After 11 seasons : after 9/11 a show revolving around a government conspiracy could not surivive
This topic is making me laugh, thanks Bill.
My suggestions:
1. Perhaps *insert cable or broadcast network* will pick it up because it’s ratings would be good on that network. I blame Criminal Intent moving to USA for this.
2. Vampires are hot at the moment. CBS and Nina Tassler must be regretting cancelling Moonlight and they should bring it back!
3. DirecTV will pick it up!
Viewers are turned off by the show’s title!
(Despite the fact that it lost two thirds of it’s audience after it premiered. I guess none of those folks noticed the title at first.)
i blame al queda
It was just too expensive!
They should have resolved the mystery line sooner (ex: who Killed Laura Palmer)!
people just don’t watch tv like they used to
“Advertisers only want young demos. But old folks have money, too!”
“It was too [insert random adjective here; some suggestions are "quirky", "snarky", "intelligent", etc.] for broadcast TV.”
“6 million loyal viewers can’t be wrong!”
“But, [something to do with the show's plot] is going to be a huge fad next year!”
And my personal favorite:
“It was created under Ben Silverman.”
they were not able to use the right product placement ( just an example: 30.000 USD Dodge SUV )
You guys should organize a “Fantasy Football” style game each week we could draft shows as our lineup and see who’s lineup wins in the ratings. =)
It was thrown under the *Put your top rated show here* bus.
Thursday is too competitive.
Milo Rambaldi didn’t predict its cancellation.
TNT will pick it up they like gritty there.
Who’s “Josh Weldon”?
I don’t know whether or not you meant to misspell his name, but that’s one of the great things to make fun of about a lot of his “informed” detractors, that so many can’t even figure out how to spell his name.
It would be great to see a companion article to this one, focusing on how juvenile and mean-spirited are some people who REALLY hate the shows that they want to see canceled and all the foolish comments that they make.
Just a request, take it or leave it as you will.
It’s on during the most competitive timeslot of the week! Also, this other show I like that airs on a different day, MOST COMPETITIVE TIMESLOT! And this one. And this one…
Reality TV is just a fad.
I was waiting for someone to point out that I miss spelled, and yeah umm I spelled it wrong on purpose
They cut the budget this season. That’s why it’s boring.
But it’s only 32 episodes away from syndication!
It had a bad Lead-in. Ppl tend to use that excuse
It’s on the wrong network. It’s more of an YZX type of show.
It was doing really well in the ratings until Juliet changed the future.
AO, pointing out in every post just how juvenile everyone who doesn’t agree with you is, doesn’t really make you seem more mature. The mature route would be to just ignore.
We have come to learn that overbearing and irrelevant 50-somethings have commandeered the TV’s in 20% of the Nielsen households and they’re all registering as viewing CBS during our slot!
DVR killed it.
Weldon, Julia!
It was taken off the schedule and nobody knew its season premiere was last night.
2 words: Jay Leno
If we send in (insert object based off of a random quote from the show) to the network, they’ll HAVE to renew it due to the fans!!
1) [insert show name] got gazillions emmy award nomminations, how could they cancel it?!
2) [insert show name] got gazillions emmy awards, how could they cancel it?!
3) It’s beacause of the old folks at CBS who will not learn to use the remote that [insert show name] got so few viewers!
4) People are too stupid to understand such an intteligent show as [insert show name].
5) Viewers are too lazy to watch serialized show and will only watch boring procedurals.
yes intelligent was mispelled on purpose
It won’t get canceled *Insert name here* at *Insert network here* is very behind the show. In fact their *Insert family relation here* adores it.
Wow that felt like a madlib >.<
Sure make fun of the fans who hate to see their show canceled.
In the case of Firefly, you can’t find enough excuses for that travesty. Firefly was abused by Fox every way a show can be abused and it is more popular now than ever.
Fox should just change their name to “the network that canceled Firefly.”
FOX (Firefly’s Obnoxious eXecutioners)?
That reminds me:
(Name of former Firefly cast member) is the star of this show!
It was a good show before Ericas therapist changed it.
bad luck, voodoo, karma, a curse (Parenthood)
Do you know anybody with a Neilsen box?
The promos suck.
The promos are misleading.
The local affiliate is WXYZ 54. All the other stations are under 14.
The ads that run during the show are very annoying.
Our local affiliate had a power outage.
We all go to the high school football game on Friday nights.
But they spent 8 million on just the pilot episode! T.T
“Just wait until the Live+7 numbers come in. There’s no way (insert network here) can ignore the DVR increase.”
nkinsey, I forgot about that one, perhaps when Three Rivers is cancelled, the fans will send organs to CBS.
My favorite and the reason for canceling Deadwood. It was to expensive to produce!
Or..we lost our viewers because we took to long to come back from our “break”.
Or we lost our viewers because we thought we should have more political messages embedded in our story lines…hmmm good idea…no bad! What part of escape television don’t you get?
Or We thought it would be cheaper to produce a reality show
JERICHO proved more than any other show that the Nielsen way of rating shows is a dinosaur !!
Semper Fi
Lee
They just tried to copy “Lost”.
People only watch cable. USA network is just to good
People only watch cable. TNT rocks
Ah, yes, good old “The network is too invested in the show to cancel it!”
@Julia
I’m so glad you reminded me about the “But we all go to church on Wednesdays” excuse. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when that one was used.
It’s close to tying a longevity record.
ok fan excuses
The writers are killing the show
this seaon sucks compared to the last(or previous seasons)
Network dosent listen to the mass of fans(all 2 of them)
This show is too(insert descriptive hollywood word here)-gritty edgy or realistic etc-for this network
Look at the leadin for this show this show will not retain those viewers there are totally diffrent
The night this show is on has too much competition from other networks-ie fringe-why would the network put it there to be killed
This show is on the friday dead time slot noone is gonna be home-The networks need to let the numbers slide for fridays
damn sweeps/olympics/baseball/football is killing my show- for the shows
moved or on hiatus for those sporting events
This show is too smart and doesnt appeal to the herd of american viewers
they dont even count dvr viewing on their own sites,dvr numbers cant be right
LENO has killed my show and all of TV
ok i think i got them all or most lolz at least the ones ive used LMAO
sry i was told i had a few more
the network aired the episodes out of order so the show dosent make sense
the network didnt air all the episodes or give enough backstory so this season wont make sense to new viwers
they tried to make the show easily accessable to new viwers they dumbed down the show
The main star who has left the show was the glue that held this show together-this show sucks without them-ie CSI and Criminal Minds
“Depending on how many good ones there are I may make a series of cards.”
Hmmm… 24 spots for excuses per card… 165 responses already (and counting), a few with duplicated (or slightly reworded ideas/thoughts/excuses) but some with multiple thoughts/ideas/excuses (some of which, if flipped, could also be valid)… it looks like there’s enough material now for at least 5 cards even if you don’t repeat any of them!
Good luck with the free square choice: It’s Dawn Ostroff’s Fault/It Beat Leno nominated so far and I will nominate the “People just don’t get it/are too stupid to get it” from above (from whomever offered that one).
All of a sudden it feels like Christmas waiting for these cards to come out.
You going to make actual cards and give them out as part of prize packages down the road?
You going to make actual cards and give them out as part of prize packages down the road?
I hope he means TVBTN is going to start merchandising.
The network didn’t do any outside-the-box/viral marketing.
It changed networks (UPN/WB to CW)
It starts at 10:03.
People don’t want to watch a network that airs wrestling.
Oh yeah, Leno is taking the good guests!
My favourite: “The rabid fans of this show are the type who are NEVER home on Friday night.”
I’m never home that night
The plot was too confusing
I missed the 1st episode so I was going to start on it when they start the re-runs
Too much sex for networks
Not enough sex for networks
Too much violence for networks
Not enough violence for networks
Too many gay characters
Not enough gay characters
none of the characters were vampires
It was the number one show among college educated men between the ages of 35 and 45 with an annual incocme of over $100,000.
But the original did so well in England
The show can’t be dead! It didn’t star Ted McGinley, Rena Sofer, Paula Marshall or Christopher Gorham.
They should have called it CSI: Eastwick
It wasn’t one of Oprah’s favorite things.
The show is too smart for the viewing public
People aren’t smart enough to get it
Too many people are waiting to get it from Netflix
Wait until the sixth/seventh/eighth/umpteenth/next-after-this episode, when Whedon stopped being constrained by the network, then it will REALLY take off!
It was on too early.
It was on too late.
It was better than 99% of all the shows out there.
It was the lead in show’s ratings that killed it.
It needed more time to grow.
People are morons and only like reality shows.
People just don’t understand it.
The show is formulatic but I like a show where you don’t have to think, and the lead is hot!
This is the only show I watch and if (insert network here) cancels it I will never watch that network again!
Lucky
lol at “original did so well in England”
Nathan Fillion ran over a gypsy with his hybrid and will forever be cursed with no more than 2 seasons of any show he is in. And Whedon was riding shotgun.
Advertisers pressured network to pull it.
People don’t appreciate Shakespeare anymore.
[Now I'm cheating:]
“The humor was great but way too subtle for a country that…”
“Too hip, too cool.”
“As soon as they posted the episodes online before the premiere, you had to know it was toast.”
“They didn’t even give it a chance, and this is exactly the kind of show that lends itself to a slow-growing audience.”
“I suspect it was viewed by the Peacock as hiatus filler all along. And if it caught traction, they’d take credit and look like geniuses.”
“TV networks don’t understand that some shows need some time to increase viewership/become better/etc. They of course blame viewers for low ratings.”
“This show was weak as water from the second episode on. Everything that was unique and creative was crushed in favor of standard, traditional and obvious sitcom nonsense.”
“This doesn’t surprise me. It has a committed man to his wife, somewhat clean fun and humor. If Andy was cheating on his wife and there was more racey content and maybe more crass converstation, then, just then it may have survived.”
” I think that if NBC wasn’t so caught up in their Law and Order franchise shows, Andy Richter’s show would still be on.”
http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/04/09/andy-barker-p-i-canceled/
it was one of brendan frasers 7 wishes that the show not be cancelled.
But my backyard was seen half a mile away from a helicopter in one episode! There hasn’t been a show in my town since 1982!
(Used with Trauma in SF this morning.)
Chemistry between the two single protagonists was awesome, so we decided to make them a married couple.
Too many unknowns in the cast, no big name star as the lead
Sci-Fi shows always struggle in the ratings because networks don’t know how to handle them and the Emmy’s ignore the genre.
But it won an Emmy for [insert most obscure Shmemmy category]!!
I just have to mention how hard I laughed at Jeff’s vampire comment. Perhaps I’m over tired, but that was good. Think a vampire could save Three Rivers? Oh wait… nope, its not working.
The full frontal scenes didn’t work as expected: ratings went bust and limp after the second show.
Do we have – It was too dark and gritty for network television (Southland)
The show is filmed in [Canada, New York, North Carolina, Louisiana, etc.] so it’s really really cheap to make! Plus, none of the eight lead actors are big stars, so they must come cheap.
We were forced to water our material down after Lisa Lampanelli complained about it being offensive.
The show will make gazillions of dollars from the tie-ins (books, music, video games,….action figures?)
i like the fantasy football/shows idea above
robert and bill you guys are gonna have a tough timne with this i think there are alot of gd excuses mentioned even though a few are repeats
I tried to read the other answers, but there are so many. I hope no one used these yet:
The network interfered with the show’s creative vision.
It aired on only night. It should have been given chances on different nights.
It aired on too many different nights and the audience couldn’t find it.
It would be a big success if it aired on (tiny cable channel) instead.
The network should not have made it available for online streaming a week before it was broadcast on television because I bet they lost a ton of viewers that way.
My answer above should say: “It aired on only *one* night.”
Another one:
The network aired too many reruns/preempted it too much/put it on hiatus for too long.
The intial ratings don’t count, once you factor in repeats, DVR, iTunes and Hulu, the show is being by X per week and therefore should be renewed.
The studio’s lot guard dog ate the best scripts.
The show was doomed to fail after scoring low on tvbythenumbers cancel/renew index.
It was bad promoting. Tonight on ABC, It’s an exciting episode of ABC’s (fill in the blank). Only on ABC. ABC Start here! Everyone remembered it was on ABC, but nobody knew what the he** the name of the show was.
The stars of the show didn’t get their chance to sit in the Dancing with the Stars audience.
Melrose Tuesday just doesn’t glide off the tongue like the original Melrose Monday did at the bar viewing party.
It was on the wrong network!!!!!!
It did great in Live + 100 Days.
It was an expensive show to produce, so we decided to outsource all writing and scripting to China. Unfortunately we didn’t realize until the end of the season that the dialogues were written and scripted from back to front. The show was canceled shortly after.
They should report DVR ratings for more than a week because everyone saves up several episodes on their DVR and watch it in mini-marathons.
Networks keep canceling great shows with no reason, so no one wants to invest time in a new show until they know it will get a second season…so it’s the networks’ fault that my show is getting low ratings because the viewers just don’t trust them any more. If they didn’t cancel shows every year, more people would watch the new shows.
The Mentalist has great ratings, is beating Leno, and is doing better than Eleventh Hour! It’s a niche show, and it needs time to grow. SAVE THE MENTALIST!
*The above post was a joke in case your IQ is below the average monkey.*
It switched timeslots (again) and no one knew when it was on.
“The writers’ strike killed its momentum”
*I admit, I used that excuse for Pushing Daisies season 2 ratings
it had a bad lead in
Best thread ever! Should be made sticky for easy reference.
DVD sales will bring it back to life.
Can we have reasons for these excuses? Like shows moving networks especially to Cable which rarely happens due to the cost involved or DVD Sales like Family Guy and Futurama which are THE EXCEPTIONS plus animated.
Wait…reasons? You’re looking for reason in the “my show has bad ratings” excuses? Or you want reasons why these excuses are (almost always) ridiculous?
The latter, Holly like annoying other networks to take on a cancelled show like when Life was cancelled, people wanted USA to pick it up when it would have been too expensive and the fact it has successful shows and not pick up scraps from NBC.
It has excellent retention out of ______.
It’s too smart for the room.
They’re starting a Save Our Show petition on TWoP.
It dominates in A55+.
It beats MyNetworkTV every week.
Wait until next week.
Sure this is in the mix but -
Killed it by going on hiatus
Killed by airing in the Spring/Summer
etc…
@ Julia: “I hope this means TVBTN will start merchandising”, and also at Robert and Bill:
Maybe I’m the only one, but I would totally buy a TVBTN T-shirt. Just saying…:-)
But it is such a smart funny family show, it should not be on at 10pm.
The network needs to counterprogram it and not put it against anything on CBS ever. It worked for Bones.
ABC is too desperare for a procedural.
People on twitter say it picks up by episode 6.
Why is Two and a Half Men still on the air?
Not at all a reason, but I love when people diva out of a conversation with “I am still bitter about Firefly/Veronica Mars/Jericho.”
I love it when AFTER it’s cancelled people complain that the show was rebounding and the ratings have been up the last few weeks. Yeah sure, up 5% from a 1.3 demo and four million viewers.
Just go to whedonesque and look at any DH thread and you find all the excuses you can use.
My favourite is the show is too cerebral for the average audience – if you don’t like what I like, you must be dumb.
[lol, it's like they think if you don't like it then you must be a moron, actual intelligent shows like Lost or West Wing or Battlestar Galactica had no problems finding an audience.]
One I’ve seen: “But EVERYONE I know watches this!”
Or how about: “XYZ network HAS to give us closure!”
Or (and I’m reaching here): “We have our fan campaign in full swing!”
Hulu killed it
Awesome! These are all great!
You already have it wasn’t promoted enough which is always a personal favorite, but what about the lovely twist on that “the network didn’t know how to promote it, the commercials were stupid and no one would know what the show was about”.
I also love the “but the network promised to air all of the episodes, why would they make them if they weren’t going to air them” denial.
“It beat Leno” should be the free space.
Leno is Satan so [name of show] must be saved to defeat him!
Because TV By the Numbers cursed it to failure.
It keeps getting preempted by sports/news/special programming.
everyone was watching the weather channel…
Network bigs missed the bump in D+7 ratings.
The networks are against Joss Whedon!
America is full of morons.
We didn’t send enough peanuts.
Not an excuse but a comment:
Great post Bill!! It’s been a blast participating in it!
They were targeting an older demo
They were targeting a younger demo
Tough competition in that time slot
Not enough romance
Not enough action
Who writes these scripts? My 6 year old could write better dialogue
It’s no Glee!
There were no vampires so what was the point?
Added just so I don’t forget, although may be elsewhere.
All the shows I like are being canceled.
There are too many crime and hospital shows already.
the jooooooos
Monday Night Football on ESPN stole all of the viewers
That damn network moved the show to another night and no one could find the show.
No one knew that the show has come back on the air.
They let Garrett Dillahunt guest star on the show.
Jeff Zucker’s fault.
Ben Silverman’s fault.
Jay Leno’s fault.
NBC’s fault.
San Andreas fault.
“The network didn’t promote shows it didn’t produce.”
I remember that one from Dark Skies.
‘The Superficial Nymphomaniac Psychotic Witchy Housewife Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places and Ages’ sounded original but the title was too long.
All of these ratings are irrelevant because the majority of Conan’s audience doesn’t watch TV. They watch him in the Internet, i.e. Hulu, the tonight show website, etc. We need to see numbers of online ratings.
“The show is doing great besides it’s [NUMBER OF SEASONS] old”
“[NAME OF SPORT] hurts it too much”
“Ed Sullivan would be turning in his grave to hear what CBS is doing today.”
This show is important.
This show is similar to [hit show] but none of the fans of that show know it exists.
This show has a good demo compared to other shows on its network, and lead-in retention is just an invention of the mainstream media. (Oops. Think I’m playing wrong now.)
It jumped timeslots too often.
JehuConnor writes, “Sure make fun of the fans who hate to see their show canceled. In the case of Firefly, you can’t find enough excuses for that travesty. Firefly was abused by Fox every way a show can be abused and it is more popular now than ever. Fox should just change their name to “the network that canceled Firefly.””
Bill, I don’t think this person gets the point of this topic, but if you grill him/her for an hour, I bet you could fill up 100 new Bingo cards easy.
Uh, yeah, I get the point of the topic.
Doesn’t matter. Every thread related to a canceled show is by default also about Firefly because Firefly is the mother of all stupidly canceled shows.
Sure. I loved Jericho and other shows that have been canceled. But Firefly is the apex of bad cancelations. Don’t even compare Firefly to Veronica Mars, Jericho, or Arrested Development.
Largely considered one of the best Science Fiction shows ever, Fox’s treatment of Firefly was a text book example of how to make a show unsuccessful.
Anybody that cannot admit that Fox foolishly canceled Firefly lacks objectivity. They are unwilling to admit that sometimes cancellation is the wrong choice. Because if there was ever a show that should not have been canceled, it was Firefly.
JehuConnor, Not sure if that was “The network is run by morons” or “The network wanted it to fail”. Either way, Bingo!.
~Nielsen’s are outdated and don’t cover alternate areas for viewing.
~They didn’t take into account my show’s worldwide fanbase.
~The show was just too intellegent.
~If it would have had a better timeslot…..
How many years ago was Firefly cancelled? Sheesh man, time to move on.
My favorite fan excuse: “But it’s one of the top illegally downloaded shows!”
These reasons are hysterical and oh so true. Very few can ever admit that just because they like a show there is nothing wrong with the millions more who don’t like it. “Must be an acquired taste, like fine wine,” was also something I heard applied to the very low rated Battlestar Galactica.
You’re not counted b/c you’re not in the viewer demographics of 18-49 years old.
“JehuConnor, Not sure if that was “The network is run by morons” or “The network wanted it to fail”. Either way, Bingo!.”
Well, it’s about “Firefly,” so smart money is on a combination of:
*People are too stupid to get it.
*They ran the episodes out of order.
*Too long of a hiatus between episodes.
*It wasn’t promoted enough.
*People are too stupid to get it.
*It was on the wrong day/time.
*Eleventy billion people downloaded the torrent.
*People are too stupid to get it.
*Everyone I know watches this.
*Nobody watches TV when this show is on.
*People are too stupid to get it.
*It has good reviews.
*The save our show petition has eleventy billion signatures.
*People are too stupid to get it.
*The lead-in was dragging it down.
*Cable will pick it up.
*People are too stupid to get it.
*It was ahead of the curve.
*It sold eleventy billion copies on DVD.
*People are too stupid to get it.
*It ran opposite[insert name of ratings juggernaut]
*Neilson is an antiquated system.
*People are too stupid to get it.
*There was a big movie premiere that night.
*It has great internet buzz.
*People are too stupid to get it.
On second thought, no need to make a list. Every single one probably applies.
it was stuck on the peacock network