Please Say It Isn't So! Did ABC Cancel Three Dramas?
Thursday November 20, 2008
I think I can actually feel my heart breaking. According to Kristin at E! Online, ABC has canceled Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone and Pushing Daisies.
Kristin states in her report that Bryan Fuller, the executive producer of Pushing Daisies, confirmed the demise of the series after speaking directly with ABC president Steve McPherson. Fuller revealed that although the final episode ends in a cliffhanger, there is a possibility that an ending might be on the horizon via comic books.
I go into each new television season knowing that at least one of my favorite shows will get canceled by the end of the season. There have even been some agonizing years when I have lost several of my guilty pleasures in one shot during the upfront announcements in May -- May being the key word. I have never experienced so many television losses before midseason has even begun. I can't begin to think of how many more we'll lose by next May.
It's times likes these that make me wish a better ratings system were in place.
Photo: © American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. Photo by: Bob D'Amico
Comments
Hi Rachel..I’m sorry to hear 3 shows you like are canceled. As you know, us October Road fans know better than anyone what that feels like. And, I agree with you 100% about the ratings. We have all been saying this for months, that the ratings are not 100% accurate and it’s not right that shows have to be based strictly on them. Granted some shows that are canceled due to low ratings are really bad and should be, but October Road? It’s absolutely a phenomenal show, but unfortunately is a victim of this rating system that is soooo not fair. I still just hope that October Road can be given another chance, because it so rightfully deserves one. LONG LIVE OCTOBER ROAD!
ABC suckered me into Commander in Chief and Invasion. Since they were cancelled, I stick to cable channels. The networks are just trying to find the cheapest reality crap to serve up without writers or actors. Most of the good network TV actors are seen only in commercials.
i am very, very sadden to hear the Dirty,
Sexy, Money has been cancelled. I loved
the show & thought it was one of ABC’s
best shows. ABC, you made a big mistake.
Pushing Daisies was the most original, fun series on the air right now. This is a terrible shame.
I can’t believe they are cancelling Eli Stone. That is one of the most original shows out there and I love it. My mom just started watching it.
I feel your pain, Rachel.
I’ve been ranting about this process since last season’s myopic and premature cancellation of “Journeyman”, and the recent similar blunder with “My Own Worst Enemy”.
I’ve come to realize that network television is no longer about quality entertainment. The executives making these decisions are looking at bank ledgers, and that’s it. They have no concept of what quality entertainment is, and as another commentor said, push for the cheapest, lowest-common-denominator fare.
Same thing has happened with the music industry.
So smart, intelligent, well-written, well-performed material gets cut off at the knees again…I was a fan of both “Eli Stone” and “Pushing Daisies”.
BUT DON’T WORRY! We STILL get to sit through
hackneyed, rehashed drivel like “Knight Rider”, “Life On Mars”, and “Fringe” for the foreseeable future!
What’s worse, they’re even going the extra mile in secondary ad campaigns to attract viewers to “Life On Mars” and “Knight Rider”…you know the ones…”If you haven’t see ‘Life On Mars’ yet, this week is the perfect time to start!!”…which obviously means those shows aren’t raking in the revenues either…but they’ll cancel “Enemy” after only four episodes.
I don’t get it. It’s crap business practice that leads to an ever-diluted and degraded
industry.
The bums ought to be fired like the thieves on Wall Street.
I vote NO CONFIDENCE for the “Big 3″!!
-c.m.b.
And the big joke is that they showed the first Eli Stone as a rerun to night! OMG I hope no one was stupid enough to get interested in the show now that it has been cancelled. They still may be able to give us some sort of an ending. I hope.
I loved my nights of watching regular network television, but things have change. Every show I’ve watched has been canceled like Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone. There are so many shows that really stink it makes you think you’re brain dead for watching this crap.
Some of these shows are so stupid I can’t figure out whose watching any of them. For example ” Life On Mars” or “House Wives Of Atlanta” come on guys, please.
I had to take matters into my own hands and stop watching network television. I watch cable or our local PBS station, which no one is bailing out. Our PBS stations need help if it wasn’t for the donations we the public donate there would be no PBS to watch.
I will not let these network executives dumb me down, I pay for cable because I can watch what I want. Everybody can’t spend money on cable right now so they have to watch this crazy stuff. If you stay up past 1:00 a.m. there is nothing on but “info commercials”, they drive me nuts.
Those of us who are adults are being treated like children; you give us something good and then you snatch it away. You give us good shows and like clock work poof there gone.
Why bother we all know it’s all about money not about us the public sector. They don’t give us too much credit for using our heads and not watch network television…
LeaMarie…
I can remember back in the 1980’s when shows like “Hill Street Blues”, “Cheers” and “St. Elsewhere” came close to cancellation during their first seasons, but NBC had faith in these shows, sticking by them despite the low ratings. Of course history speaks for itself when all three shows became hits during their second and succeeding seasons. What’s happening with our networks today? To the CEO’s of CBS, NBC, and ABC…you folks need to stick up for your quality shows. Some critically acclaim but low rated TV series like “Fame” was canceled after a year and a half on NBC, but rose to popularity in syndication for the next four years. Maybe these short lived shows can continue in that same format on independent or cable networks?
i totally agree. this is a HUGE loss for tv & these were my top 3 fave shows! i’ve even shed some tears for PD’s as i feel this is by far the greatest loss…and it makes me sooo sad that i just cant bring myself to watch any tv right now. my tivo is just filling up while i am very depressed. why cant the ratings system be fixed…and why cant bryan fuller be given the chance he is due & let his wonderful series last more than 1 or 2 seasons!!!
THESE WERE 3 of the worst shows on TV. I don’t for the life of me know why they were brought back for a second season.
I’m tired of investing time and interest in a show to only have it cancelled and get that terrible letdown feeling. I’m done giving new shows a chance. I wait to hear that it’s a “commercial success” and getting renewed a second time and then spend the summer getting caught up via Netflix DVDs, ready for season 3. These all three sound like shows I’d have enjoyed and was hoping to watch. The ratings systems is a mess!
Hi Rachel,
I to can feel my heart breaking. I hope that it is just a dirty trick that they are canceling dirty sexy money, and eli stone. I absolutley love those two shows. Do the executives at abc jsut like taking away the shows that people like. I am not a fan of Pushing Daisy’s. But love, love the other two. Even my husband who does not watch tv as he is usually on his laptop. Sits down on the weekend with me and watch’s dirty sexy money and eli stone that I have recorded.
It seems like if it is not a stupid cop show or crime show (which I relize alot of people like alot.) It seems like they always take the other ones off the tv. The shows that they should take off that no one likes they keep on for years and years and the ones that people like alot they cancel.
i can’t believe they canceled eli stone. i didn’t really like it at first but it kind of grew on me and now when i kind of get into its just gone. that same thing happened with October Road and I was so mad because that was one of the good ones. i don’t really care about pushing daisies b/c i thought that was stupid with him bring people back to life by touching them. that’s ok for movies but i didn’t think it worked well for tv. I never watched dirty sexy money because the name made me not want to watch it and the people in it.
You have to be kidding. Eli Stone and Pushing Daisys are two of our favorite shows. So much fun to watch. I say it all the time….BUT how do they leave some of the horribly stupid shows on that they do and cancel the great ones? Ones that dare to be different, ones that are positive and fun and ones that you feel like you know the characters, love the characters and can’t wait to meet with them weekly???? Isn’t there anything we can do? Jericho was saved. I would take even one more season of these fantastic shows…..
So sad! ABC is a mess. Every show I watched has been cancelled now. Reality t.v. bites but it’s cheap and that’s what their demographics are attracted to. It is sad and pathedic. Smart shows get hacked. What does this say about the public. Truly.
I hope one of the cable channels picks up Eli and Pushing Daisies. When all the networks go under because of the crap reality shows they think are so great. Cable is going to be the only way to go if they don’t get there act together!!
Rachel, didn’t you say that some of these cancelled shows were going to tie up the loose story lines and give us a decent ending? I sure hope so because I am still in mourning that Joan of Arcadia was cancelled before we found out what would happen to the characters. And I am so sad that October Road and Men in Trees left us in the same way. I hope that Dirty Sexy Money will resolve its story lines the way Boston Legal did so that we viewers get at least some satisfaction.
How could they just cancel Lipstick Jungle when it was so good and was just getting better and better each week.
What the heck are the PTB thinking?
Anybody else agree?????????