Eureka producer Amy Berg says the reason the plug was pulled on the series was a financial one for Syfy.
Berg tweeted last week that was the show was Syfy’s “golden child” the price tag for a series six was what doomed the show.
“Everyone is asking why [the show was canceled]. It’s simple, really. We are the network’s golden child in every way, except profit margins. Fact is, Eureka is an expensive show to make,” she said on Twitter. “We could not maintain the quality of our show with the cuts it would take to make us profitable for Syfy’s new parent company.”
Berg went on to say that Syfy wanted to renew the show and worked to try to make that a reality. But in the end, that didn’t happen.
“Trust me, they love us,” she said. “We just couldn’t make the numbers work.”
Berg confirmed that a fourteenth episode has been added to season five to serve as a series wrap-up.
From this month’s issue of Duh Magazine…
It’s always about money. It will never not be about money.
Although continuing the show would be splendid, if it resulted in a significant lack of quality, that would quite possibly be worse than cancellation.
A sci-tech show like Eureka needs them special effects!
Eureka *DOES* have absolutely great special effects, every episode. I can’t imagine those being cheap to produce. The episode with the crime-detecting lenses was a great example.
I’m majorly disappointed about the cancellation. I can understand it, in some measures and lights. It’s nice to hear that SyFy tried to make it work at least (hard enough or not, I can’t say, not being privy to the details’ details!).
Which is pretty much what I’ve been saying HAD to be the reason since the beginning…not some ridiculous notion that Syfy wanted to screw the fans.
So, you take that money used to bring “wrasling” & those ridiculous Saturday movies on SyFy and put it into decent programming like Eureka. Duh! God, who runs that frackin’ network? Oh yeah, NBC/Universal – I stand corrected.
Those movies are pretty bad, but they seem to be getting more and more popular. For all we know, the wrestling and reality shows we love to hate on could be helping to fund some of those expensive sci-fi shows we love. Didn’t Fox recently say that the success of American Idol is what’s keeping Fringe on the air? Everything has it’s place. I just hope sci-fi still has as place on Syfy for a long time to come.
Say what U want, WWE brings in the money and sponsors. That’s the BOTTOM-LINE! like it or not….
I don’t care if WWE brings in billions. If NBC/Universal wants to start a new “Wrasling” channel that costs them little & produces them tons of revenue, find, I don’t have a problem with that. However, to put that trash on a channel that is suppose to be dedicated to speculative fiction is “white trash” at best & a real slap in the face to all those fans that have stuck with the network for years.
So, start the new wrasling network & take just 2% of the overflow profits from that filth & pour it into SyFy, thereby saving shows like SGU & Eureka while being able to produce at least “some” quality SF programming. Trust me, those of us who perform, write & participate in these kinds of productions are sometime willing to work on the cheap because we love the genre that much.
Taking profits from one enterprise & using them in another use to be done all the time back in the day. Network news was always funded by more successful programming profits. Of course, that was in the day when the news division of a network was interested in the truth & not a personal bias or political agenda, which happened once 24hr cable news came on the scene causing networks to force their news divisions to produce their own profit. Then news became a matter of ratings, not fair and balanced reporting of events…but, that is a different rant for another media – not here on SoSF.
That’s probably WHY U aren’t running a network but just watching like the rest of us….
You’re probably right. We’re way to high on the evolutionary scale to ever be in charge of a television network.
Perhaps those ‘wrastling’ shows are cheap to produce and bring in a lot of money, what you and quite often the execs don’t realize that Eureka makes money even on re-runs. How many ‘wrastling’ reruns have you ever watched? Even the die-hard fans of American Idol (probably the most popular reality show) do not watch reruns. Yet there are networks out there that DEPEND on reruns. The decision to cancel Eureka is a short-sighted view. A bean-counter is looking to make money ‘this season’, not looking ahead.
Well said Sam. They did the same with Farscape. When was the last time one of their “original” movie was actually science fiction? Ah well there’s an hour I’ll have to myself every week and it won’t be spent watching a show on a Universal NBC network.
Farscape was a completely different situation. Syfy at the time renewed that series for two seasons with enormous fanfare. The producers went into seasons 4/5 with expectation of lasting that long, and planned a two-season arc accordingly. Syfy then changed their minds halfway into the deal. That was egregious.
In the case of Eureka, the show was always renewed season to season, and the producers weren’t planning beyond the season under current production (at least, any more than usual) for that very reason. There were no promises made, no contracts signed. Eureka’s fate was no different than for any other show up for consideration of renewal.
So, apples and oranges. Context matters!
Actually COMCAST now runs the network.
So eureka cost more than Sgu? If Sgu was 2million per ep how much is eureka? Eureka has good numbers and when syfy cancelled Sgu the reason was the ratings couldn’t support the shows cost so now you have a show with that’s getting 2.1 or so an ep and it’s cancelled because of money? I just dontunderstand that crummy network. I also find the producers reason to be pr bs “could not maintain the quality of our show with the cuts it would take to make us profitable for Syfy’s new parent company.” are you telling that the show couldn’t have cut 1 character out or cut down slightly on visuals which I might say there are not intense visual effects every episode or most of the episode. I’m calling BS.syfy canned it so they could run more bad reality tv ormake room for something stupid.
Doesnt really matter anyway because the network is horrible.
@Will: While what you say is probably quite logical in the world of network finanicing, however, as a fan of good, but hard-to-find scifi, I strongly resist that logic. It would be nice to find a place that produces quality programming for the sake of the art & not just the bottom line. But, that is a kind of thinking for some other plane of existence, not this one.
…so instead, we’ll just order up some more “Ghostbustin’ International”, and some other “reality” b.s. And wrasslin’!
I’ll admit, the “bad” movies are fun when you’re in the right (enhanced) mood.
I’ve watched them with friends and had our own little Mystery Theatre 2011 going and it’s a fun time.
But why not slash the Ghost Huntin’ budget, dump wrasslin’, and push that money over to Eureka?!
If they did more funny, cheesy product placement, I wouldn’t mind because it was done well.
Anyway, this cancelation is yet another TV travesty that makes it difficult for people to fall in love with a show.
I’m afraid that the next show on the block will be Warehouse.
When that happens, I’m out. I’ll be watching BBC America for Doctor Who and the Brit sci-fi adventure series, STARZ for Torchwood.
I hope all of the Eureka cast does a Fillion and land fabulous hit TV shows, movies and whatever else brings them success.
I’m going to sit somewhere and weep now.
The show will run for five seasons. How is that a “TV travesty”, when by every measure, *any* show that runs five seasons is a hit with a respectable run?
Another reason to spend less time on SyFY…SGU then Eureka…the shows that are left (except for Haven) aren’t really to my liking. I watch Warehouse 13 but it’s not something that I have to see every week.
Wonder if it really got the boot because of the money they are putting into Alphas(if that’s a hit…I tried watching and found it boring…but the commercials looked like it had quite a few special effects) Wouldn’t be the first time two shows on a network had to be chosen between due to a limited budget.
I suspect that SGU’s cancellation had more to do with the meltdown of MGM, which almost killed several major film franchises, rather than solely Syfy’s budget concerns.
Surprise, surprise Syfy canceled a show because it got too expensive? See: BSG, Farscape, SG-1 etc, etc. Don’t get too attached to BSG-Blood and Chrome because as soon as the production costs rise they will pull-the-plug 🙁
If Sgu was cancelled for ratings and eureka for budget then being human is doomed. With the low rating that show is over.
Maybe if they had a few hundred less cast members *sarcasm* it might not be so freaking expensive to produce. SGU also had a huge cast, as did BSG. WH13 with what, five or six regulars and a few guest stars – renewed. You can’t tell me the special effects on Eureka are that much better than WH13! Its all computer generated and can’t be that expensive anymore!
Well, then what about Sanctuary? It’s almost entirely Green Screened and edited. That’s got to be costly. Will they be next? People have to remember that this is about money, not ratings. When it gets too expensive, it has to go. Otherwise, there would be no shows as the network would go under. It’s not a hobby, it’s a business. That’s all it is. I doubt the execs there are even truly SciFi fans. They’re people with MBA’s that look at numbers. Ratings numbers, financial numbers, etc. It’s all about the Red and Black. Stay in the Black, you’re great, go into the read, you have to get cut.
Actually Sanctuary’s budget is a lot less than a show like Eureka or Haven & Warehouse 13 just because nearly all of it is shot on green screen using digital technology. When you factor in the cost of on location shooting, needing to get every shot in the absolute correct outdoor lighting, fighting the elements, transportation & a myriad of other problems & costs that location & studio setup shots costs, the use of green or blue screen & computer enhancement is fiscally sound. The cost goes down each season with the introduction of new, highly effective, more economical digital programming as well.
For people commenting on budgets :
Sanctuary has a budget of just under $2 million an episode, and they run a legendary tight ship. So that would have put SGU’s up around the $3 mil mark.
Sanctuary’s producer’s also have said several times that being a majority of green screen does not save them money merely moves costs to another part of the production flow, however it does give them freedom for story telling settings.
If economic reasons are the cause to “Pull the Plug” on Eureka, it is Syfy Channel it self for the problem. They have shows with 11 and 12 episodes per season. There is very little time to build a true fan base. Look at Stargate and Stargate Atlantis they were both very, very, costly to produce, but with 22 episodes a season a fan base was able to be developed and maintained. Even today their DVD sales still sell well. So Eureka’s production costs are not the problem, Syfy and their parent company NBC/MSNBC is the problem. In time the other shows on Syfy will start to fail and nobody with the “suits” will be able to figure out why. It’s a real shame the old Sify channel was the number one channel I used to watch, but sence it was bought out and a new management team moved in it has really gone down hill. ( WWF give me a break )
The moment I saw ‘wraslin’ on their line up I knew it was the beginning of an ugly spiral down the drain. Nothing left to do now, but wait till the series that haven’t been cancelled yet, in favor of ‘reality’ tv, to get the axe.
Couldn’t the show find private contributors? Cooperate with engineering departments and computer animation departments of multiple universities. Let them do the work for half the costs. I don’t know….there are many ways to keep the show alive on a smaller scale.
Maybe get rid of wrestling, the tired lame ghost shows and KEEP Eureka!! I am so done with syfy after this. Lame stupid shows is all it will have left. Maybe another network picking up the show????
I am an X rocket scientist from NASA and IMHO, I believe that Eureka has been the best SyFy show to go on the air for the last 5 years. I watch it religiously and live for its inspiration. I can well understand that SyFy needs to make a profit since this is business, but I believe you are making a big mistake by not listening to your Fan base SyFy. We are telling you in no uncertain terms, via many sites, Facebook, Twitter, Eureka.com, here, etc., GET RID of the cheesey Wrestling, Ghoast Hunting, Paranormal drivel, Black Out, Lost Girl with the gratuitous sex, and all the other lame reality show junk. You are insulting our intellegence. KEEP EUREKA!!!!