Evidently FOX doesn’t know the answer to that question!
Just when I was beginning to give FOX the benefit of the doubt after their announcement that they have renewed “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” for a second season, they go and pull another… well, FOX!
The new SF series “New Amsterdam” was bringing in an average of better than 13 million viewers each week, but there is a strong suggestion coming out of the back corridors of the network that they will not renew the series. What does it take to keep a show on the air at FOX? Obviously it isn’t ratings because Sarah Connor would kill every Terminator on the block for numbers like that. And thank goodness NBC Universal doesn’t expect those kinds of numbers from the best program to have ever graced the television screen or “Battlestar Galactica” would have been scraped after its first season. The best that show has ever done was 6 million viewers and on a weekly average it is lucky to see 3 million.
So, the question remains — if nearly 14 million viewers aren’t enough to keep a show on the FOX network, how does any future program stand a chance of survival? If you listen to Kevin Reilly, president of FOX, then over 13 million viewers doesn’t equate to a show “catching on with the audience.”
Fortunately for fans of “New Amsterdam” no final decision has yet been made, and there are a ton of fans who are just dying to see the show return in the fall, however if the sources are correct, then say goodbye to John Amsterdam and all those other great characters after the final episode of season one. We’ll know for sure when FOX has its upfronts from New York this May.
Can anyone say “Journeyman”?
I definitely agree that Fox jumps the cancellation gun. Firefly probably being the best example of this. However, in the case of New Amsterdam I can’t say that I’m at all surprised. For starters this show was supposed to originally air last fall, but was postponed. If it had, I suspect that its ratings would have been far more accurate. It seems that this show was effectively canceled before it ever aired. The only reason it got the rating it did was likely due to the fact that there was simply nothing else on. The writer’s strike effective created a programming void that this show somewhat filled. But I have to say that while the acting was adequate, the characters were trite and terribly predictable. The plots were terrible. The “bad guy” can be picked out immediately, before they ever get into any investigation. Other than that the show is essentially a rehash of Highlander, with the exception that Amsterdam can have children. So, I would be amazed if it got renewed.
That’s a good question, Sam. It is extremely frustrating how inconsistent the networks are when canceling shows. The only thing I can come up with is that Fox might be having trouble lining up advertising for “New Amsterdam”, but with ratings like that, it’s hard to believe.
Part of the problem is that FOX declared “New Amsterdam” dead already, way back in the fall. They decided they would burn off the existing episodes and call it a day. Of course, now it’s doing rather well, so who knows?
At the same time, they’ve renewed “Terminator”, they have “Dollhouse” and “Fringe” already waiting in the wings…they really don’t have much space left in the schedule, unless “New Amsterdam” is picked up for an off-season run over the summer or something.
So, yeah, typical FOX brilliance…LOL…
Too bad, I liked “New Amsterdam” quite a bit.
studio suits are morons with a banker mentality. how else do you attribute the cancelling of almost any and every sci fi series and having season 19 of surviver reality crap, or american idol droll.
every show i like and get attached to innevitalbly gets cancelled.
terminator was only renewed to keep get people excited for the new trilogy which i will be boycotting unless james cameron returns and pretends t3 never happened.
nbc are the same morons who cancelled tos star trek twice.
i’ll never forgive the suits who had enterpise cancelled. 3 million people lobbied to have the show saved, they just did not care and basically it happened because rick berman was let go.
journeyman seemed to be brilliant, even though their were comparisons to quantum leap.
desperate housewhores and american idol seem to be more to dumb americans attention spans according to these producers and studio types.