Why do low-rated shows end their seasons in cliffhangers?

[Trek4Ever]

It's something that's been bugging me for the longest time. I see this alot with sci fi shows like Alien Nation, Space:Above and Beyond and so on. The ratings aren't great in fact the producers have to have an inkling that their show could be canceled yet instead of trying to conclude a story they go with a cliffhanger that will never be resolved.

I can understand there have been cases where the producers expected the shows to be renewed but I'm talking about shows on the bubble. Seriously, I don't expect the main story to be concluded but at least avoid a cliffhanger. For instance, I hear that Stargate Universe will end with a cliffhanger and frankly I don't feel like watching the rest of the remaining shows for that reason.

I know of a couple of shows like Caprica and Threshold that were able to shoehorn in a concluding coda of sorts. I appreciate that effort from the producers, at least viewers have some kind of conclusion or direction of where the story goes. I mean what if The Fugitive never resolved the main point due to low ratings? Why would anyone want to watch the show in reruns?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Oddly enough, The Fugitive has often been cited as an example of a series which probably didn't do well in reruns because the series resolved itself.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Yeah, I adamantly refuse to watch shows on their way out that end unresolved. It's just a really big thing for me. I've had my fill of a lack of resolution already.

 

[Vanyel]

Sometimes the ax doesn't fall until after the final episode has been shot and aired. Look what happened to Babylon 5. Season 4 should have been 2 seasons, but it was all crammed into one because it was thought the show was going to get canceled. When it wasn't, a 5th season had to made.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Heavily serialized shows are courting their interrupted climaxes. Frankly, producers who propose to me that I commit in principle to surrendering an hour of my life every week for a presumed five to seven years to the observation of their promised-to-be epic story are asking too much.

 

[Christopher]

The fundamental purpose of a cliffhanger is to make people want to come back and see what happens next. It's the old show-biz axiom, "Always leave them wanting more." The reason shows do cliffhangers is because it's a proven way to generate excitement about the show's return. Dallas's legendary "Who shot J.R.?" cliffhanger created so much buzz and excitement that the season premiere resolving it was the highest-rated TV episode in history up to that point. Of course, that's because big season-ending cliffhangers were a less common thing back then, but it was the beginning of a trend.

So often a show that's uncertain of renewal will deliberately end a season with a cliffhanger in hopes of improving its chances, making the audience care more about whether it comes back so they'll put more pressure on the network to renew it. The ideal is to end the season on a cliffhanger so dire, to generate so much buzz and curiosity, that the network won't dare cancel the show and earn the audience's wrath. Yes, it's a gamble, because if the network kills the show anyway, the audience will be frustrated. But given what's at stake, it's a gamble worth taking if it improves the show's odds of renewal at all. Better to go down fighting for survival than to simply surrender.

 

[JarodRussell]

To end a show that got cancelled with a cliffhanger is in my eyes a last way of saying "fuck you". I find it very annoying.

 

[bigdaddy]

How about Fringe that will end on a cliffhanger even though the writers had warning of being moved to the Friday night death slot.

 

[od0_ital]

^

Hasn't Fringe gotten its highest ratings in the "death slot"?

 

[FordSVT]

I think that it's very stupid and presumptuous of a writer and producer of an unproven, first season show, to end their first season in a cliff-hanger that leaves a large part of the plot hanging. On a show that's been around for a few years and is guaranteed to be back, that's different.

I think there is a difference between not resolving the main plot and teasing the audience though. The ending of the first season of Heroes resolved the main plot (avoided the city's destruction), but provided a few reasons to come back next year (Sylar got away).

 

[bigdaddy]

^

Hasn't Fringe gotten its highest ratings in the "death slot"?

Ummm no... It got it's highest ratings when it was on Mondays after Fox and then Fox decided to be stupid and ditch the House - Fringe line up which is the only one that has worked in the last several years besides the House -24 combo.

The last ratings more people I think watch QVC than Fringe.

 

[wamdue]

but if you give the show an ending, then there will be no call to bring it back in any media.

If you give it a cliff hanger it increases the chance no matter how slim it may return in another form, as people are left wanting to know how it ends.

Personally I see it as a "write your own ending" the show probaly never had time to do everything it wanted to do, to bring it to the conculsion the producers wanted, so giving it an open ending allows fans to end it, how they see fit.

 

[Aragorn]

A lot of time the axe doesn't fall until after production has wrapped up. Very few shows get to go out on their own terms. Look how many "series finales" Chuck has had and it's still on the air.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Oddly enough, The Fugitive has often been cited as an example of a series which probably didn't do well in reruns because the series resolved itself.

Funny enough, the remake (the Tim Daly tv series, not the Harrison Ford movie) ended its sole season with a cliff-hanger. Pretty good one, as it happens (about the only episode I saw).

I watched Flash Forward and fully expected it not to last beyond a season. Its cancellation was long-awaited. Then the last episode looked like it was going to wrap everything up - and could well have done. Suddenly - it ended in a cliffhanger. That just seemed really stupid.

Whereas if anyone remembers the short-lived tv series Threshold (Brent Spiner, Carla Gugino), in the final episode they at least did give a sort of verbal flash-forward (no relation) as to how the story would end. Resolution of a sort.

 

[FPAlpha]

I think producers tend to go for broke with shows.. who cares about plot resolving for a show that's cancelled and where you're likely not to make much money in after-sales.

So they bet on a shows renewal and plan/produce accordingly.. if the gamble works fine but if not they didn't lose too much. It depends on the producer too.. special mention of JMS and Babylon 5 where he didn't want to gamble away his huge story by leaving it unresolved and was building up for over 3 seasons so he made sure that at least the main story was finished which put him in a predicament when he indeed got the planned 5th season.

TV networks are usually fickle.. as a producer you are at their mercy and only a big track record of successful previous shows gives them any leverage in negotiations to renew a show.. otherwise the network will look at the numbers and make a factual decision regardless of artistic integrity or fans wishes.

 

[Jax]

I do wish more writers/producers would write self contained stories with the ability to carry on if succesful. If after 6-8 episodes your gettign GIANT numbers fiar enough write your cliffhanger in but TBH I prefer the style of a Whedon who normally wrote self contained seasons.

 

[Harvey]

Sometimes a show is so far along in production that it has no choice but to end on a cliffhanger. STARGATE UNIVERSE had wrapped production on season two by the time the cancellation notice came down. So had CAPRICA, but it at least had a "next season on CAPRICA" montage at the end that (apparently) turned into a satisfying conclusion.

 

[Christopher]

^I get the impression from something I read that the montage at the end of Caprica's finale was intended to be there all along, that the idea was for the second season to jump forward about five years, with the closing montage setting up the transition. Although the fact that it works well as a series finale may have been a consideration too, just in case.

EDIT: Although after reading your post a second time, I think that's probably what you meant in the first place. So there ya go.

 

[Harvey]

Yeah. I could have been clearer, though. It doesn't help that I haven't seen it, so I only have second hand accounts of it as my source.

 

[Brikar99]

I think more series should end with the main characters mysteriously thrown back in time and encountering alien Nazis.