Don't you love to sit down and watch a brand new series? You dedicate your time to watch it and invest in the characters, just when you are hooked, the network decides to cancel it.
Typically cancelations happen when the number of viewers are not high enough for the networks to invest more time to the series, since advertisers are less likely to spend money to air their commercials on a dead timeslot.
This is understandable, HOWEVER, it's become a problem and actually its been a problem for quite a while now as writers always write the last episode of the season with cliffhangers, expecting the series to get renewed.
Cliffhangers began to become more rampant in the 90's as a way to gain viewership & make sure they return the following season. The difference between then and now, is we have various ways to watch the shows without having to tune in at the time it comes on. DVR (Digital Video Recording), Hulu and more give fans ways to watch on their own time, meaning the live viewership is no longer an indication of how popular or how many are watching the shows.
Networks such as NBC, ABC & recently FOX have infamously canceled shows with no proper finale for the fans, making it hard for people to want to invest any time in watching with fears that they'll be left on a cliffhanger. I always say "Would you read a book torn in half?" that is what they are doing when they give the writers no time to write an episode that wraps things up.
I'm not sure why writers continue to implement this way of writing, maybe the networks mandate it, maybe they're just that confident it'll get renewed, but it really is ruining how people view TV shows, making streaming services like Netflix, Hulu & recently YouTube Red more appealing since they have ended most of their shows properly (Sense8 a recent example).
I've suggested many times to writers of my favorite shows to write the finale with two scripts as a compromise. For example, if the show is renewed they can do a cliffhanger, knowing 100% that they will get to resolve the questions given. If they are canceled, they have that wrap up episode that completes the stories, allowing the writers the satisfaction of finishing their story and giving fans the respect to finish the story.
Networks clearly don't care, especially NBC as they wait until the last possible second to announce a cancelation. This gives writers NO time to create a script to finish the story and after a cancelation a studio won't invest more money just to wrap things up. So far only The CW (owned by CBS & WB) have done what they could to complete stories. Frequency for example, was canceled late in the season, so they had the writers write a new short that wrap things up. Nikita was another canceled series that was given another season with 6 episodes to help close the story.
While I can understand not every network or studio is going to spend money just to make what they see as a few people happy, the writers themselves CAN do something to change this way of making TV shows, writer two versions of that final script of the season.
At this point I don't even watch a show until its gotten through the first season and is renewed, which eve than is not a full proof avoidance of the show getting canceled with a cliffhanger (Tru Calling for example).
I'm hoping this open letter is shared around because I love television, but its no longer fun to sit and watch TV knowing it may get canceled without a proper resolution.
Shows like Constantine, Tru Calling, Almost Human, Lois & Clark: New Adventures of Superman are just some examples.
Thursday, May 10, 2018
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