Fox pulls Drive from the air

[yendi]

Lucy yanks the football once again.

Un-fucking-believable.

ETA: TV Guide confirms it.

Comments

[littlebuhnee.livejournal.com]

What the hell?! I haven't even gotten a chance to WATCH the episodes I DVRed yet, and they're already pulling it??

I HATE FOX! >:(

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

Firing up a HotS commentary as we speak.

GAH.

[heathrow.livejournal.com]

GODDAMN.

[glowkitty]

What the fuck, man. I didn't even get a chance to watch it. I hope Nathan Fillion quits going back to his abusive boyfriend of a network.

[kradical.livejournal.com]

To inject a dose of reality into the knee-jerk FOX bashing, they, in fact, did everything they could to support the show. They could not possibly have advertised the show more heavily than they did. You saw Nathan Fillion's mug on FOX more often than you saw Kiefer Sutherland's in the two weeks leading up to the big event premiere they did for the show.

And with all that, the ratings would have had to have improved tremendously to have gotten as good as being in the toilet.

There are plenty of stupidities that can be laid at FOX's feet, but when they promote the holy shit out of a show and it tanks badly, they don't really have much choice but to pull it. It's called capitalism.

[yendi]

If they'd simply not renewed it two weeks from now, sure. But they yanked it three weeks in. And that was after the heavily-promoted (but not necessarily smart) stunt of debuting two episodes in a Sunday slot followed by kicking it off on Mondays (where it was yanked after only two attempts at its official slot). I understand that we're not living in the days of Cheers anymore, but promotion or not, they gave it no time to build an audience.

[kradical.livejournal.com]

Sometimes successful shows will become more successful, or shows that still perform well enough to survive will continue and grow, but the reason why Cheers stayed on the air was because it was a cheap sitcom with two standing sets and no name actors, so it was still making money for NBC.

But the whole "it'll build an audience" thing is nigh-mythical, because the only shows that build audiences are ones that already have a solid foundation of viewers to start. Drive didn't, and Drive is an expensive show. The fact is, shows don't build audiences. Shows always lose audiences after the first episode, and Drive didn't have very many to begin with and that wasn't going to get any better. Word of mouth makes a successful show more successful, it doesn't make an unsuccessful show successful.

And honestly? It also just wasn't that good. I love Tim Minear like a brother, but this show was being carried completely on the back of Nathan Fillion's charm. The characters were a collection of dull clichés being inhabited by mediocre-to-decent actors (plus Nathan and Charles Martin Smith, who lit up the screen when they were on, and the show suffered mightily when they weren't), and the reasons behind the race were murky to the point of absurdity. I understand why people entered the race, but why in God's name would anybody run it?

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

I've got to agree with that last part. Because of the love it was getting from others, I REALLY wanted to like it. But with a few notable exceptions, I didn't like any of the acting. Maybe they'll be a Lost Season dvd like Threshold got. But I'd rather see one for Andy Barker, P.I.. Now that was a show I wanted to see catch on...

[blazingmoogle.livejournal.com]

Seinfeld was practically a flop when it began, and it built an audience over the years.

[kradical.livejournal.com]

Yes, but again, that's a cheap sitcom with only a few sets and actors who were not big names at the time. Sitcoms are dirt-cheap to make, so they're given longer leashes. One-hour dramas that involve tons of FX work and have big ensemble casts aren't going to get the same consideration as a four-character sitcom.

(Seinfeld also sucked the wet farts out of dead pigeons, and the fact that it was ever popular is one of the reasons why I despair for humanity. The world would be a better place if it had been cancelled, IMO.... *chuckle*)

[mere-bystander.livejournal.com]

They did not give it a chance! Yes - they heavily advertised the show - but then they screwed up! They premered the show on Sunday night - then moved it to Monday night! What the hell?! They should have put it in its regular time slot the first night and then continued to show it at that time! Secondly, they did not give it time to reach more people! Sometimes folks take a while to start tuning in to even the best shows!

They are so getting a hate letter from me!

[tarpo.livejournal.com]

So they cancel Drive before I can watch it.. and they killed Rich List after one ep.. and I actually LIKED the damn gameshow.. is fox trying to set a record or something? Maybe they can start renewing old shows just to cancel them again next

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

Maybe they can start renewing old shows just to cancel them again next

Shhhh! They might hear you (http://cscottd.livejournal.com/46596.html)!

[afeldspar.livejournal.com]

Look, Fox has been known to cancel shows it's promoted heavily before they even air. (Rewind with Scott Baio, or Manchester Prep?)

[mere-bystander.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Keen Eddie on Fox, too?!? (I loved that show!)

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

(You can imagine Neil Diamond is yellimg.)

The radio ads (my main exposure to the advertising) didn't appeal to me at all -- though I'm consciously avoiding getting into running-storyline TV shows like this, so I'm a hard sell -- and made me not want to watch it. It seemed to be trying so hard, like the show was saying "Hey! We have mythology like Heroes and Lost! PLUS fast cars!" It seemed almost like a McG actioner. Oh, to live in a world where the show's creator's status as a Whedonverse veteran could be a huge selling point...

[zhent.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this completely sucks...

[lonesomenumber1]

Good grief.

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

I was wondering how long it would be before that show would get foxed (http://cscottd.livejournal.com/19263.html)... :(

[scottwrites.livejournal.com]

Fucking hell. Tim Minear just can't catch a friggen break...

[blergeatkitty.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised. I liked it, but honestly, Fox promoted it all wrong. They needed to be more up-front about the fact that you could watch the episodes on the Internet, and they needed to not show three episodes in two days. All that did was guarantee that a small handful would get really into it, and the rest of the world would feel like they couldn't get caught up if they tuned in late.

It is sad, though. Not that I'm as rabid about Nathan Fillion as the rest of the universe, but I'll admit he brought the pretty to a fun show with an intriguing premise, and the whole damn thing will be sorely missed.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

This may be an indication that the networks feel that the serial storyline drama market is at the saturation point as is.

[mere-bystander.livejournal.com]

WHAT?!?
Gah!

Why?!? Why do they always take the shows that I like off?!? Why?!?

(*bangs head on wall*)

I'm beginning to take this personally!!!

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

In case you hadn't seen (http://www.homeonthestrange.com/view.php?ID=201).