Cancellation is no longer a death sentence
Social media can be a doomed show’s reprieve
Cancellation isn’t quite the automatic execution it used to be for TV shows. This month, NBC picked up Brooklyn
Nine-Nine just a day after Fox laid it to rest. And Fox resuscitated Last Man
Standing a year after ABC killed the sixseason Tim Allen comedy.
Both were brought back by companies that own the series, which remains the most important factor in a network’s decision to save a show.
Since program ownership rules were relaxed in the 1990s, “we saw the networks gravitate toward content produced by their own studios,” said Stacey Schulman of the ad firm Katz Media Group. “So it’s not surprising if shows in danger of being canceled go to other networks” that own them and profit from selling reruns to other outlets.
At the same time, viewers have used social media to amplify their protests, adding an influential voice.
Fans took to Twitter to protest the
Brooklyn cancellation after five seasons. Others staged so-far-unsuccessful online campaigns to find new homes for two canceled dramas, Fox’s Lucifer and Syfy’s The Expanse, and to persuade NBC to give a second reprieve to
Timeless (which seems unlikely). The network resurrected it last year two days after its cancellation, partly because of fan fervor evidenced in USA TODAY’s annual Save Our Shows poll.
(Timeless won this year’s poll, too.) And Netflix is considering a rescue of another canceled show, Designated Survivor, if it can wrest U.S. streaming rights. Kiefer Sutherland starred in the drama, which ran for two seasons on ABC, as a low-level Cabinet member who became president after a terrorist attack.
Aside from its ownership of the series, NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt credited the network’s long ties to star and former Saturday
Night Live cast member Andy Samberg, the show’s producers and, especially, diehard fans for the rescue of the lowrated Brooklyn.
“It was really the explosion from the fans … which only helps,” he said. “We love when the fans yell and scream and go to Twitter. (But) we love even more when they watch the show.”
Resurrecting a show serves as good, fan-friendly publicity for networks used to hearing complaints. With the NBCUniversal partnership on Brooklyn, “all the ducks lined up,” said Lisa Herdman, senior vice president at Los Angelesbased ad firm RPA. “NBC is the hero, and the fans are all happy.”
Network fit matters, too. Fox plans to promote Friday’s male-skewing Last
Man on its new Thursday Night Football. Other factors have changed the dynamics in favor of second chances. More cable and streaming services mean more potential homes for shows with loyal fan bases, including some where the size of the audience is less important.