Where was DirecTV when they needed them?!
Last week DirecTV announced it had secured the exclusive US rights for two seasons (20 episodes) of Damages, thus saving the show from the cancellation scrap heap.
We're certain one outcome of this will be that fans of shows with bad ratings will begin mounting campaigns for DirecTV to save their show, no matter how awful the ratings are.
That inspired me with the idea to do a silly weekly top ten list next year: "The DirecTV Top 10" for the shows most in need of saving from DirecTV.
To be clear, it is just intended as fun and to have yet another forum to discuss show ratings. There is no reasonable expectation, at least by us, that DirecTV will actually pick up any of the shows. Consider this: literally dozens of shows have been canceled in the last few years. DirectTV has had a hand in saving two of those shows, Friday Night Lights, and Damages.
While I plan to have some fun with it in the coming season, one idea that popped up was doing a bracket style tournament to produce an ultimate winner at the end of the season. While that idea didn't work great for me in terms of how to handle next season's shows, I thought it was a great idea in terms of going into the archive of already canceled shows to produce a winner. Basically, just like the NCAA Basketball tournament come up with 64 shows, create brackets that produce various match ups with the winners advancing.
The first trick -- coming up with 64 shows. Fortunately for us, Julia already did the work of trying to come up with a list of 64 shows. She included a lot of shows that were canceled since we launched the site in 2007, but for shows before that she tried to only include shows fans are still lamenting today (e.g. Arrested Development and Veronica Mars).
Edit: to be clear Julia is NOT suggesting (and neither am I) that these shows were actually canceled too soon or that they shouldn't have been canceled. It's just a list of shows that were either canceled in the last 3 years or still have fans lamenting the cancellations.
Here's her list, it's sorted alphabetically:
| Canceled Too Soon? |
| Andy Barker, PI |
| Arrested Development |
| Back to You |
| Better off Ted |
| Bionic Woman |
| Boston Legal |
| Cane |
| Cold Case |
| Dead Like Me |
| Dirty Sexy Money |
| Dollhouse |
| Drive |
| Eastwick |
| Eli Stone |
| Everwood |
| Firefly |
| FlashForward |
| Freaks & Geeks |
| Gilmore Girls |
| Greg the Bunny |
| Heroes |
| Jericho |
| Journeyman |
| Knight Rider |
| Kyle XY |
| Las Vegas |
| Law & Order |
| Legend of the Seeker |
| Life |
| Life on Mars |
| Lipstick Jungle |
| Melrose Place |
| Men in Trees |
| Moonlight |
| My Name is Earl |
| My Own Worst Enemy |
| New Adventures of Old Christine |
| New Amsterdam |
| Numb3rs |
| October Road |
| Party Down |
| Prison Break |
| Privileged |
| Pushing Daisies |
| Raising the Bar |
| Reaper |
| Roswell |
| Samantha Who? |
| Scrubs |
| Shark |
| Smith |
| Star Trek: Enterprise |
| Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip |
| Terminator: TSCC |
| The 4400 |
| The Beautiful Life |
| The OC |
| The Unit |
| Ugly Betty |
| Veronica Mars |
| What About Brian |
| Without a Trace |
| Women's Murder Club |
| Wonderfalls |
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If you have shows you think should be added, what show would you remove? Or perhaps, like the NCAA we will merely expand the bracket to include 68 or even 96 shows.
Bring Legend of the Seeker back on TV! This great show deserves more seasons… there is so much stoty left to say! Numbers rise every day! Season 3!
I'd remove Cold Case, it had a nice run and really wasn't canceled too soon by by any stretch of the imagination. I'd replace it with the show E-ring, great show that was on for far to short of a time.
I would remove The OC. I watched all four seasons and I felt it was wrapped itself up at the right time. And although I miss Scrubs and Gilmore Girls, I think they had run their course as well.
I would add Now and Again (starring Eric Close) to this list.
Completely agree about The 4400, Pushing Daisies, Ugly Betty, Flashforward (much better than V!), Lipstick Jungle, Journeyman, Privileged, and My Name is Earl.
I agree with….about 27 of this 64 list of shows….
I'm not going to step on anybody's toes by telling them their show doesn't deserve to be on the list, but The Ghost Whisperer is a recent cancellation that got a lot of attention (not to mention a “ABC will save the day! coalition).
I'd agree with: Cold Case, Jericho, Kyle XY, My Name is Earl, New Adventures of Old Christine, NUMB3RS, Shark, The Unit, and Without a Trace.
I'd add to the list: The Dead Zone, Threshold, 8 Simple Rules, and George Lopez (the sitcom).
I'm going to list the shows that shouldn't have been cancelled:
Terminator: TSCC
Better Off Ted
Firefly (I think we can all agree on this one)
Arrested Development (once again, I think we can all agree on this one)
Law and Order
Dead Like Me
Prison Break
Knight Rider? I'm not sure it matters if it was the original, revival or even–shudder–Team Knight Rider, or whatever that abomination was called. None of them were cancelled too soon.
Jericho and Cold Case…now those I agree with.
I agree with Arrested Development, Veronica Mars, Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Gilmore Girls. These are all wonderful shows that I would love to still be able to watch new & fresh stories/plotlines of today.
The only shows I'm still sad about going too soon are Kyle XY, Journeyman, Pushing Daisies, and Veronica Mars. Though I'm all right with the runs they've had.
With the first three, they ended with horrible cliffhangers and was sad to not get the chance to see what happened next.
Knights of Prosperity….loved that show! Add it in place of Prison Break, that show more than ran its course.
I would remove all the shows with three or more seasons, and the list could be quite accurate. But Gilmore Girls, Numbers, Without a Trace? They've had their six, seven years…
Legend of the seeker bring back on tv
Both Journeyman and Without a Trace were canceled too soon. With Journeyman, the show was starting to get really interesting and the mythology was just getting developed. At the very least, it should have gotten a back 9 order. Without a Trace had a nice run, but it was still generating decent ratings when it was canceled. Cold Case should have gotten the axe before it did.
Show blatantly missing from the list: Traveler. Another missing show: UC: Undercover.
Otherwise, not a bad list.
I'd ditch Freaks and Geeks from the list. While it was a great show all of the actors involved are now way too old and recasting the whole thing wouldn't work. I'd add Viva Laughlin (not sure of spelling) if Glee gets ratings maybe that monstrocity will now too.
I'd add John Doe and Jake 2.0
Kings.
Legend of the seeker deserve another season.
Rains and Twenty Good Years and 1vs100 of course all 3 canceled by NBC