As a sci-fi and fantasy geek, it’s been a tough year for people like me, who get super invested in their TV shows. Once again, we’re experiencing cancellation hell. Some of the TV shows cancelled this year have been around a while (Supergirl, The Outpost), and others barely got a chance to be noticed (Debris, Helstrom). It’s been a constant emotional assault on us geeks from the days of Star Trek (The Original Series) through to Firefly and Caprica, but why does it happen?
The Churn
When a show is shiny and new in its first season, costs are lower because it’s not found its niche yet, and the actors and scriptwriters aren’t demanding huge salaries. However, after a well-received first season, people may start demanding more money. So if it’s not a huge hit, the network may decide to ditch and invest in newer shows to avoid the expense.
Added to this is the expectation that viewing figures will fall from season to season. This is especially true with the current preference for writing serialised storytelling over the episodic format making it hard to attract new viewers’ jumping on.’ So again, it looks good for networks to abandon a show and find the latest hot new thing instead.
The Viewers
Viewers are a fickle bunch, and sometimes, even if I think a show is great, not everyone will agree. For example, I absolutely loved The Outpost (even with its camp 90s style and hammy acting), but its viewing figures were never great, and I’m just happy to have seen the four seasons we did get.
Sometimes a show loses viewers over time. For example, Supergirl peaked at 3 million viewers per episode, but this had halved by the end of season 5. Naturally, networks do not like this and, along with production delays caused by coronavirus and the star’s pregnancy, the low viewing figures caused network execs to pull the plug. Fortunately, they did give us a fantastic final season!
The Networks
Sometimes, a show can be a potential big winner, but the network execs have no faith in it or actively don’t like it, leading them to skimp on marketing or mess with the schedules to kill the show.
Probably the most famous (and hurtful!) example of this particularly nasty form of cancellation is Firefly, which execs at Fox doomed to failure before it had a chance to shine. The same issues plagued Doctor Who in the 1980s. The BBC’s then Director-General, Michael Grade, famously hated the show, reduced its budget and marketing, and switched it away from its successful Saturday night slot.
While we all hate it when a beloved show comes to an end, at least we sometimes get good endings. Both Supergirl and The Outpost had excellent, emotional final episodes in 2021 that the fans will cherish for years to come. But, of course, this only partly makes up for the lack of closure with shows like Firefly and Debris.
In the end, we geeks are a tough bunch; we wipe away our tears and march on to the next fandom... until its inevitable emotionally-scarring end.