I didn’t know really how to title this post, but I found out that CBS has shelved, though not officially canceled, the freshman medical drama Three Rivers, which stars Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight). I watch a good 40 or so shows regularly over the course of the year, and a handful of those are new series, in which majority of those never come back (sometimes, along with a few previous favorites of mine). Anyone who may also watch TV as much as I do, knows the frustration of a good show getting canned because there is simply not enough people (or the right people) watching.

Some shows can have a miraculous save, such as last season’s Dollhouse on FOX, although, this was a temporary redemption, as the series had been canceled, officially, a few weeks back. ABC also has some hiccups, though it’s on the bubble gem Castle has a full 2nd season now, there’s no guarantee ABC will keep it next year, which would be a shame, ’cause I know several people who caught one episode and loved it, but being they are not a TV viewer like me, they probably don’t watch it every week. As for their freshmen dramas, the weakest links were that of Hank and Eastwick, both of which were canceled. They seem to be getting by with the forgotten, which isn’t high, but at least did better than Eastwick. NBC also seemed to have followed a similar route. With two of their new dramas, Trauma and Mercy, Mercy performed maybe slightly better, so it got a full season while Trauma got canned. However, NBC decided to order three more episodes, so they may just be trying to fill the schedule with any existing show they can until the new season slate arrives.

Of course, NBC has a whole other dash of weird. With Jay Leno having his own show five nights a week in the 10/9c hour, let’s just say those ratings aren’t stellar neither, but at least it’s a much cheaper show to produce instead of a full-fledge scripted drama.

But what has caused networks keeping series with such low ratings? Simple, they really don’t have much of a choice. They could cancel the low performed and got for repeats of top-performers (such as FOX filling Friday with Bones and House while Dollhouse was on hiatus. And for a Friday night, those repeats did only slightly better than new Dollhouse (I think, .8 vs 1.1-ish). Would networks really be better off to just air encores on Fridays? CBS could probably still get away with new episodes, but it doesn’t seem to happy, even though it wins the night. Shouldn’t the nights ratings be compared with those it is competing against, whether than the rest of the week (Meaning, CBS cut Numb3rs‘ season order, having got around a 1.7 with the last new episode, behind ABC’s 20/20‘s 1.8, but still ahead of NBC’s failed experiment The Jay Leno Show, so instead of putting it side by side all the other crime dramas of the week, it should only be compared to those in the same timeslot, or even just of all shows for that day.) Nope, TVByTheNumbers.com has a Renew/Cancel Index that uses data for all shows for the network throughout the week (simpler terms, you have an average 18-49 rating, and it’s a matter of seeing how shows score in relation to that number, with a .9 being borderline).

Of course, there are always exceptions. Networks keep shows for syndication revenues, such as ABC holding onto Ugly Betty, or CBS taking Medium in when NBC gave up on 10pm shows. ABC keeps Scrubs, also taking that series from NBC a season or two ago, since it is an ABC Production (in-house), so in these cases, no worries about a broadcast fee, but they can collect a lot in syndication (which almost questions FOX for not getting My Name is Earl (a 20th Century FOX) show when NBC canceled it last season). This would’ve been the 5th season, with that golden 100th episode, why not have sweeten it, instead of going for a new series which pretty much stunk in ratings (Brothers). They kept ‘Til Death on, since Sony lowered the fee, but there’s only so low they can go, was it even worth keeping that which even I stopped watching in the 2nd season? My Name is Earl was actually good. Well, it was also a little more expensive, being a single-camera comedy, which carries a higher production value. But, then the next question, what is wrong with keeping a few shows of high-quality, even if the ratings are what you’re looking for? A network can offset costs from their more top-performers, and could gain, especially in My Name is Earl‘s case, from syndication and DVD sales (if they are under the same parent company of course).

Plus, high-quality shows have a higher ratio of loyal fans. Take Pushing Daisies, which was a Warner Bros. Production. ABC canceled it after it suffered a major ratings loss (I blame the fact there was about a 10 month gap between season 1 and season 2, due to the strike and ABC not order a few post-strike episodes, but I can mention that everytime and it still isn’t gonna change the fact that it was axed). Now, of course it may not make since for ABC to stick with a show they didn’t even produce, but there are chances to become a co-producer of some sort with Warner and split syndication, or Warner could’ve done more to shop it around (could the CW have worked, since Warner has a 50% stake in the network?). Truth is, Warner doesn’t do much for their shows, case an point, the main reason I feel the need to ramble on. I decided to watch Veronica Mars from the beginning, and the high addictive show was highly-loved by critics, and had the most engaging stories, and a season-long mystery mixed in with day-by-day life of the title character, that kept us watching week after week. That is until the CW canned it and stayed with the more soapy One Tree Hill.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, at least once or twice, but shows like Veronica Mars were cursed from the beginning. It was a Warner Bros. Production, and instead of starting on the WB (a Warner network), it was broadcasted on UPN (a CBS network), where it was for two years, before the two nets merged, and the show managed to survive to the new network (the CW). Joel Silver was even the Executive Producer, and he worked on hits such as the Matrix trilogy (as well as that other failed series, Moonlight). What went wrong? Simple, CW is a low-rated network, and many people will shun shows on them, thinking it’s filled with nothing but Dawson‘s and One Tree Hill‘s. But Veronica Mars wasn’t the average teen drama. Yes, the character of Veronica Mars (played by Kristen Bell) was a teenager in high school (then college in the 3rd season), with teenage problems, but the series was also more mature. Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer it was able to reach a broader audience, more-so than what UPN could provide. Could the series have been even slightly better off if it got started on the WB, getting the Gilmore Girls pairing earlier in its existence? Maybe.

Truth is, there’s no way to know. I know I am just one of many who hate seeing their shows get canceled, because they are too smart and witty for the general public. But that’s why there are blogs. Gives a chance for people like me to vent their frustrations.

So why do I support Three Rivers? Because, it wasn’t a bad show. What hurt it? It could be all the NFL overruns, that pushed it passed 10PM (it was a 9pm show) and people started to go to sleep. Also, tuning at 9PM and seeing The Amazing Race might of just made people flip the channel (I’ve had to adjust my DVR manually, hell, I almost missed it once because of this). Oh, DVRs, now that’s another thing, and right now I’m clockin’ in over 1300 words, so I won’t get into it, again.

Happy Winter!

Sources used: TVByTheNumbers.com, the futon critic

Plus, here’s an article stating that a Veronica Mars movie seems to be out of sight now, tvSquad Article, which is a shame, although I think I’d prefer the series to come back, like how Family Guy did.