Just wanted to mention:
Shows are not always cancelled due to ratings.
Both Crusade and Firefly are shows that are widely acknowledged to have been 'sabotaged', whether by design, or incompetence.
Crusade actually had studio executives who wanted to kill it before it had aired, due to politics - they felt it didn't jive with the direction they wanted to take their network in (probably teen drama instead of serious space opera) - so they basically interfered with it, to the point they almost gave J Michael Straczynski a nervous breakdown - forcing him to change crew uniforms between episodes by writ (because they allegedly didn't like the design, in fact they didnt care) - airing the entire thing out of order when it was arc-based - it was horrific - JMS only found out much later what had happened. Babylon 5's direct sequel could have been an amazing show, and for those who have read the unaired scripts, it was going to get really deep just like B5.
Firefly, if you remember, was actually aired out of order, just like Crusade, with the pilot being broadcast last, Joss Whedon being forced to quickly put together a second pilot, etc - not as bad as Crusade's fate maybe, but they didn't even give it a full season to see how it would perform, delaying episodes so there were weeks long gaps between them - part of the reason why they promised to give Dollhouse more of a chance as a sort of "mea culpa" apology for how they had treated one of the best content creators on TV. It didn't prevent Firefly from spawning an insanely loyal fanbase, probably the most loyalist since Star Trek - the Browncoats.
Other types of cancellation can happen for a variety of reasons. Joss Whedon was sure that Angel would have got another season, but chose to try to opt for renewal early, thinking he could have more time for production the next season - the execs cancelled it on a whim, only to find season five's ratings were actually up (one of the best seasons of television I've ever seen, and one of the greatest reversals in the quality of a show I've ever seen). That was another pretty tragic cancellation, as if he had waited a few months for the normal renewal slot, like with previous seasons, it's renewal would have been a certainty. Angel is sometimes seen as a Buffy spin-off but it was an equally strong show in it's own right, dealing with different themes, like the absurdity and struggle of the adult working life.
Audience reactions could have played some part in the renewal of shows like Farscape, Firefly, etc, receiving special movie endings after the show itself was cancelled (Serenity, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars - both amazing endings for amazing shows). It's debatable whether the studios would have done these movies anyway, but they at least appeared to have been cancelled with no further plans at the time - the letter writing campaign upon Farscape's cancellation made the news.
On the other side of the coin, other shows that really really didn't deserve to last as long as they did, lasted five seasons, despite being objectively worse drama than any of the above, just because, I guess, they were cheap enough, or established enough in terms of built sets, or soap-opera like enough to attract a consistent viewership, or for other reasons that may not have been linked to their ratings as such, like the politics/image of the TV channel
Shows are not always cancelled due to ratings.
Both Crusade and Firefly are shows that are widely acknowledged to have been 'sabotaged', whether by design, or incompetence.
Crusade actually had studio executives who wanted to kill it before it had aired, due to politics - they felt it didn't jive with the direction they wanted to take their network in (probably teen drama instead of serious space opera) - so they basically interfered with it, to the point they almost gave J Michael Straczynski a nervous breakdown - forcing him to change crew uniforms between episodes by writ (because they allegedly didn't like the design, in fact they didnt care) - airing the entire thing out of order when it was arc-based - it was horrific - JMS only found out much later what had happened. Babylon 5's direct sequel could have been an amazing show, and for those who have read the unaired scripts, it was going to get really deep just like B5.
Firefly, if you remember, was actually aired out of order, just like Crusade, with the pilot being broadcast last, Joss Whedon being forced to quickly put together a second pilot, etc - not as bad as Crusade's fate maybe, but they didn't even give it a full season to see how it would perform, delaying episodes so there were weeks long gaps between them - part of the reason why they promised to give Dollhouse more of a chance as a sort of "mea culpa" apology for how they had treated one of the best content creators on TV. It didn't prevent Firefly from spawning an insanely loyal fanbase, probably the most loyalist since Star Trek - the Browncoats.
- Crusade ran for 13 episodes
- Firefly ran for 15 episodes
Other types of cancellation can happen for a variety of reasons. Joss Whedon was sure that Angel would have got another season, but chose to try to opt for renewal early, thinking he could have more time for production the next season - the execs cancelled it on a whim, only to find season five's ratings were actually up (one of the best seasons of television I've ever seen, and one of the greatest reversals in the quality of a show I've ever seen). That was another pretty tragic cancellation, as if he had waited a few months for the normal renewal slot, like with previous seasons, it's renewal would have been a certainty. Angel is sometimes seen as a Buffy spin-off but it was an equally strong show in it's own right, dealing with different themes, like the absurdity and struggle of the adult working life.
Audience reactions could have played some part in the renewal of shows like Farscape, Firefly, etc, receiving special movie endings after the show itself was cancelled (Serenity, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars - both amazing endings for amazing shows). It's debatable whether the studios would have done these movies anyway, but they at least appeared to have been cancelled with no further plans at the time - the letter writing campaign upon Farscape's cancellation made the news.
On the other side of the coin, other shows that really really didn't deserve to last as long as they did, lasted five seasons, despite being objectively worse drama than any of the above, just because, I guess, they were cheap enough, or established enough in terms of built sets, or soap-opera like enough to attract a consistent viewership, or for other reasons that may not have been linked to their ratings as such, like the politics/image of the TV channel
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