Its happened to all of us. Getting attached to a TV show and then finding out its been cancelled. All those hours we have spent getting attached to the characters, getting lost in the world that has been created only to find it all snatched away from us. There are many articles out there listing shows that have unjustly been given the axe (Firefly appearing in almost all of them) but Id like to take this time to look at what effect cancellations have had on the television landscape today, as well as the causes for the axe to fall. Are people as likely to stick with a new show as they once were? I dont tend too. Sometimes I will watch the pilot episode of a new show if the premise is good enough and I feel that the show has enough behind it to take it forward, I did that with Last Resort; a show that I felt sure was going to be a sure fire hit. Needless to say that gamble didnt pay off. But its attitudes like mine that can be an early death knell for a show, if people dont watch then its not going to last. But can you really blame me and others for being like this? Why invest in something that you may never know the outcome of? Its a catch 22 situation and one that will continue to hurt programmes that could potentially be great. Should networks allow shows time to build an audience? If the viewing figures for the first couple of episodes are dire, then an exec cannot be blamed for pulling the plug. Do No Harm as a recent example had atrocious viewing figures and was critically panned, no love was lost over it and the axe was probably a wise move. But cast your minds back to 1993. Fox launched a new show, a paranormal drama about two FBI agents investigating the paranormal. Ratings were not stellar and if launched now it would certainly be a contender for cancellation. That show was The X Files. It grew in ratings year on year, becoming a huge international success and spawned a moderately successful feature film, and ok, one not so successful one. The figures dwindled in later years but it remained a solid performer until its end. If other shows were allowed room to breathe we could be in a very different TV landscape now. The quality also tends to improve when a second season is reached and axed programmes that completed a first season have demonstrated that as the writers get used to the characters, the overall quality has improved. Terra Nova and Journeyman are two shows that immediately spring to mind. Ratings are obviously a key reason for the dreaded axe to fall (Unless you are a cable show about horses with an ironic name) but sometimes networks dont help themselves. Im going to have to talk about Firefly here as it is a prime example of television getting shafted. Back in 2002 Fox decided that the new show from Joss Whedon would debut, not with its pilot episode, but with a hastily written episode 2 (the pilot would inexplicably air in the middle of the shows heartbreakingly short run. Not only that, but they would shift the crew of Serenity around the schedule so much that nobody would know when to watch it, thus the C word was announced and the show was pulled with remaining episodes left to air. Publicise a show, back it, let the creators tell the story they want to tell. Stargate Universe is a more recent example of Network stupidity that resulted in a show that was just finding its creative feet meet its maker. Syfy (whatever the hell that means) moving it from a relatively stable Friday night slot to a Tuesday where it would battle the major networks. And then being shocked when ratings hit the floor. And right now there is Revolution, a solid performer that was taken off air for months; I would love to have the logic for that decision explained to me. We are about to find out if that has done serious damage to the show. It would appear now that cable for the most part is the place to be for television to really grow. Would Walking Dead have had this kind of success if it were on NBC for example? No I highly doubt it would. Its at times slow first and second seasons would have killed the show off, or the networks would have butchered it so much that nobody would have wanted to watch it. Cable seems more inclined to let a show develop, let it find its audience and grow. I cant help but feel that if the networks dont switch to this way of thinking than the overall quality that we see on our screens will drop, people will stop trying out new programmes altogether and we will only be left with procedural police shows. The geek inside me considers that to be a scary thought indeed.