Why Renewals and Cancellations Don’t Always Stick

I’m hoping that this won’t be the first post of May since that would mean that I once again won’t be able to do a fantasy schedule in advance of the upcoming season. But that might be for the best anyways since it is becoming harder to predict that sort of thing, especially with the CW and its craziness. But let’s get to this post to ensure that I have one done.

 

With fan campaigns to save shows largely ineffective and meaningless, they still happen because there are a few times when they do work. It remains very rare. And while cancellations and renewals are getting reversed more and more, it is almost never a fan campaign that makes the difference.

 

Still, what’s up with the changes? It used to be rare for shows to have its fate reversed. Now, it is getting more and more common for this to happen. And the gap between its original fate and things changing is getting longer and longer.

 

It was originally a plan for Killer Camp to last just one season. But the decision was reversed by bringing it back a long while later. This was later met by a real cancellation that did stick. Then we have a show like Manifest which was cancelled for months until Netflix brought it back for a real final season.

 

Of course, there’s the reverse of this too. Stumptown was renewed for a while until pandemic related production problems brought forth its real end after what was already filmed after all. The reboot of The Arsenio Hall Show was renewed for a season 2 at first, but it was unrenewed, as it is now know. The show Clarice was going to continue on streaming, but that didn’t happen after all.

 

Why do these changes happen? Well, it varies a whole lot. It was high streaming numbers that had made saving Manifest worthwhile. Networks may have sudden changes that result in something that was renewed now being cancelled or vice versa. There’s always going to be changes and it happens a whole lot more than ever before. It will still happen maybe less than 10% of the time. But it used to be less than 5% or almost never at all.