Between viewers spending less time on a show and having too much of a say in a show’s future, it’s hard to see how any new series finds success at all. There have been a myriad of examples this last couple of years alone where fans either tuned out early or reacted so viscerally to something that not before long, the studio was pulling the plug. This slowly started happening more and more toward the end of the last decade and now rules the way studios and networks make a lot of their decisions. The funny thing about this new trend is that it’s counterproductive to how the most successful TV shows are made. In movies, everything should move at a good pace and consistently keep audiences on their toes because there are only two hours to work with. On TV, the story needs more time to build and viewers are much less willing to give shows that time.
The Latest TV Trend Is Keeping Potentially Great Shows From Existing
As difficult as it might be to believe this, some shows of the past few years that were utterly destroyed by fan outcry or ignored after one or two seasons, had the potential to be quality television. It is most common for shows to just disappear into nothingness due to little audience engagement. Recently, shows like American Rust, Outer Range, Chucky, That 90s Show, and Tokyo Vice have been canceled due to little fan interest after a few episodes or even a few seasons. Unfortunately, there was potential for each of these shows to become something even better. Most notably, American Rust and Tokyo Vice were considered quality TV that many fans would have liked to see continue. Both shows got past their first seasons and were effectively building into great shows. However, the new trend probably kicked in when a number of viewers who stuck with them through their first seasons, tuned out in season two because of slower-paced story building. Naturally, the studios are going to pull the plug if not enough people are watching.
Notable 2024 Cancelations
Number of Seasons
Year
American Rust
Two
2021-2024
Halo
Two
2022-2024
Tokyo Vice
Two
2022-2024
Chucky
Three
2021-2024
That 90s Show
Two
2023-2024
Bel-Air
Four
2022-2024
Dead Boy Detectives
One
2024
The Acolyte
One
2024
Outer Range
Two
2022-2024
There is an even more extreme example of this with a show like Westworld. While it might be different in that Westworld suffered from the reverse effects, getting worse with time, it still had a decent fan base. Furthermore, to say that it got worse is not to say that it was terrible by its fourth season. Westworld kicked off with a bang, had a massive audience, and kept them engaged. Sometimes it’s hard to top a masterful first season. True Detective has run into this problem as well. Westworld was a quality sci-fi series that had set up a final season for fans still invested. It needed just one more season to finish its story but was canceled before that final season could come to life because of less fan engagement. Sometimes, it’s a wonder why studios pull a plug so close to the finish line. There’s no way to know what kind of final season Westworld would have had, but it could have easily been one of the best seasons of television. Now nobody will ever know. Audiences have a much shorter attention span than they used to, and it’s causing many potentially great shows to hit the chopping block.
The most extreme examples of audiences causing the cancelation of shows are the big I.P. properties like Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and, more recently, Halo. Fans have a louder voice than ever before and studios unwisely take those voices into account when determining the fate of a series. The biggest example of this is with The Acolyte. There were actually more than a few Star Wars fans who embraced what that show was trying to become. Is it the best thing since sliced bread? No. However, given the time to grow, it might have turned into something good or great. The visceral backlash to the series caused Disney to hit the panic button. The Halo series is another example of this. While it might have gotten a second season (one that was better than the first season, by the way), many fans had already tuned out due to a major criticism that ultimately didn’t affect the new story the writers were trying to tell. Halo is a great example of a series that was getting better and yet the audience wasn’t giving it a chance to do so. Whether because of little engagement or wild fan reactions, many shows got unfairly chopped. Other shows are currently at risk of this happening and shouldn’t be. The Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon is being criticized for taking too long to evolve and not containing enough action. However, that series is still great and getting better. Hopefully, fans stay invested while it continues to grow so that it won’t suffer this disheartening fate.
Many of the Greatest Shows in History Took Time to Grow Too
Believe it or not, many of the greatest shows on television had incredibly slow builds as well. The difference is, fans were giving them more of a chance to grow than they do nowadays. Some of the most iconic shows, like Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy and even The Sopranos and Breaking Bad had some of the slowest builds on television. Many fans admit that they weren’t truly invested in Game of Thrones until the “Red Wedding” at the end of season three. What followed that was arguably the best season of the series. Sons of Anarchy doesn’t become one of the best dramas on TV until the fourth season really pulls the rug out from under the audience. The Sopranos is a slow burn all the way through its run and Breaking Bad isn’t really Breaking Bad until Walter’s despicable decision to let Jane die at the end of season two. Imagine a world where the networks pulled the plug too early on any of these. Fans would have been deprived of some of their most beloved stories ever.
Top 10 Long-Running Shows (via IMDB)
Network
Years
Breaking Bad
AMC
2008-2013
The Wire
HBO
2002-2008
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Nickelodeon
2005-2008
The Sopranos
HBO
1999-2007
Game of Thrones
HBO
2011-2019
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Bones
2009-2010
Ricky and Morty
Adult Swim
2013-Ongoing
The Twilight Zone
CBS
1959-1964
Attack on Titan
MBS TV
2013-2023
Batman: The Animated Series
FOX
1992-1995
This is not to say that any of the most recent canceled shows would have gone on to become The Sopranos. However, there’s no way to know if fans have deprived themselves of their potential next favorite thing on television because the first season was “too slow” or “not Star Wars.” There were probably a ton of fans saying that Game of Thrones was “not Game of Thrones” or saying that the first season was “too slow,” and yet that show became a global phenomenon. The early 21st century into the late 2010s was truly the “golden age” of television because many of the greatest shows ever came out of that time. The trend back then was to stick with something if there was any faith that it could be great. Studios and networks didn’t listen to the outcries or flinch too much at some dwindling numbers. The trend today is quite the opposite, as fans find themselves in the interesting position of having much more of a say in the fate of a series than they ever did before. On the one hand, studios need to listen to their audience because they are who the product is intended for. That doesn’t mean the audience knows whether something is going to be great or not if it’s not given the proper time to evolve into what it’s actually meant to be.
There’s a perfect example of a streamer sticking to their guns currently. The divisive Amazon series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is certainly one of the riskier decisions by the studio to this point. Not only does the series have one of the most expensive budgets of all time, but it is also based on an I.P. that has a die-hard fan base with loud and unavoidable voices. However, the series is a perfect example of audiences not giving shows the time they need to develop. After the show’s first season, many reacted negatively to it, claiming it was “not Lord of the Rings” or “too slow.” Amazon should be credited with continuing to give the series a chance because its second season was even better than the first and is setting the stage for an even better season three. With a budget as big as The Rings of Power has, a studio is definitely more inclined to ride the wave in an attempt to get their money’s worth. However, The Rings of Power is getting better with time and slowly becoming what the writers know it can be. Hopefully, Amazon continues to stick with it and not allow the overwhelming one percent of fans who scream loudest to interfere with their plans.
TV Shows Need to Find Their Footing and Not Immediately Awe
The argument could be made that TV shows are not ever fully realized until their second, third or even fourth seasons. Some shows obviously awe audiences all the way through their run and these anomalies should be perceived as such. Shows like Peaky Blinders or Attack on Titan are far and few in between, while most shows don’t find their true identity until the characters have fully formed and the plot has thickened. When fans think about Breaking Bad, the sequences that come to mind first are probably ones that happened in seasons four and five. When fans reminisce about Avatar: The Last Airbender, it’s hard to believe they are talking most about season one. It’s almost better if a show evolves into something special rather than trying to maintain an aurora all the way through.
Game of Thrones had such a following and such a passionate fan base that it put so much pressure on the writers to end things on a similar high to the one fans felt throughout the series. Stranger Things has been trying to maintain an identity and a quality that has not been easy to maintain, and the pressure is on for the upcoming final season. The Penguin just floored audiences. Hopefully, it can be sustained if a second season isn’t as jaw-dropping as the first. It’s arguably better if shows don’t find their footing right off the bat and can slowly become what they are meant to be. The problem with that is, audiences and studios are not giving them enough time to do so. This toxic trend simply needs to be broken so the next great TV series can exist.
