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Joined: Feb 16 2008 Posts: 832

Avatar The Last Airbender, Reaper, Justice League Ulimited, The Dresden Files, Stargate SG-1.

All of these shows are terrific, very different but all have one thing in common. They were cancelled for the same reason. What reason is that? "They didn't reach the right demographic"

Well, I want to know what this means, exactly, can anyone explain it.
In my head, I assume that any amount of ratings is good ratings (but apparently not if it's from a marketable age group?) Does this have something to do with licensing deals, or network greed?

Posted: Aug 09 2009 12:35 am

Don't forget Teen Titans in that list. As I read it, CN wanted TT to be watched by little kids, but teens and older seemed to gravitate toward it more.

As for Avatar, they had a planned end to it. Though I am curious about that spin-off series.

Posted: Aug 09 2009 12:49 am

I'm pretty sure Avatar wasn't cancelled. According to Wikipedia:

Quote:

In 2007, Avatar was syndicated to more than 105 countries worldwide, and was one of Nickelodeon's top rated programs. The series was ranked first on Nickelodeon in Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Belgium, and Colombia.

The show also concluded its storyline, and was quickly optioned into a live action movie; I think t just ended. The show was heavily influenced in its style by anime/manga, and most anime/manga have a beginning, middle, and end. See in Japan, animes don't generally trudge on endlessly until they get cancelled; they tell a story, resolve it, and conclude. In fact, the animes that do go on for hundreds of episodes - DragonBall Z, Naruto - are generally fucking awful.

And SG-1 went on for ten seasons. I think the cost was just getting too high. After ten seasons, actors make big money. Obviously the show was popular, because it's able to sustain a spin-off, with another one on the way in October.

Posted: Aug 09 2009 01:23 am

I was under the impression that the creator of Justice League Unlimited had done the things he wanted to do and ended the series satisfied with his work.

These are not good examples. But yeah, ratings are not money inherently, which is why golf gets so much money despite not having ratings to write home about, its audience is middle aged white guys willing to drop a grand on a hobby.

Joined: May 05 2007 Posts: 40

We have alot more of that here but YTV is one of the worst offenders.
They cancel/stop ordering episodes when they're the reason people stop watching.

Basically there was a law passed in Canada in the 70's were tv must air atleast 50% of Canadian content dureing their air time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_cultural_protectionism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_content#Television

There is a time credit system for how Canadian the content is for tv.
Like fully funded with Canadian money would get highest amount of time credits. Were somthing like Are you afraid of the dark, Goosebumps, Reboot and other mainframe shows would get less points for having American funding but still has Canadian actors and was filmed/created here would get less time credits.

What Corus Entertainment has been doing with YTV is ordering fully Canadian shows (mostly animation) then after the original run of the first season they may order another season or not. But in the mean time to comply with the Canadian content law by airing episodes (usually the same episode) 2 or 3 times a day and marathons on weekends.

Eventually ratings drop even with new episodes, and the show gets canned within a year or so.So a potentially decent shows get canned because of the company's stupidity.

YTV tends to reair these shows that were canned as filler 2 or 3 year later. This has happened alot in the last decade, even with the station being over 20 years old and haveing funded many shows like the aforementioned ones. I'm pretty sure they don't have to pay brodcasting rights to reair shows they helped fund in it's original run.

They also still Beaver hour alot of Canadian content. My guess it's a way to make the most out of their contract with Nickelodeon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_hour

Even with pretty much every show now a days getting DVD releases now matter how short it's run, that doen't happen often with Canadian Shows.

Posted: Aug 09 2009 06:23 am

^ I love Canada...but that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Great example of good thought, horrid execution.

Posted: Aug 09 2009 08:26 am

SoldierHawk wrote:

^ I love Canada

This is why Canada is awesome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_caper

That, and YCDTOTV.

Posted: Aug 09 2009 09:06 am

^ One of my favorite historical subterfuges of all time. Bless Canada for being so awesome. I can only hope we'd have done the same for them, had the situation been reversed. Americans give Canadians so much shit, and yet they always quietly have our back when the chips are down. I love that country.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Kojjiro! wrote:

"They didn't reach the right demographic"

Well, I want to know what this means, exactly, can anyone explain it.

It means that the network is trying to sell short blocks of time to advertisers and maximize the value of that time. Advertisers who sell stuff that kids want are interested in making sure that the people watching the show are kids. If a station presents a wide variety of programming during hours that kids should be watching they will not be able to maximize their profit. Advertisers aren't going to want to spend as much money no matter what the ratings are because the people watching at those times wouldn't care about their products.

Posted: Aug 12 2009 02:46 am

I still give Cartoon Network the finger for pulling the plug on Megas XLR. I want to find the suit that made that terrible decision, and shit on his porch.

Also, fuck The WB/CW for cancelling Mission Hill.

Posted: Aug 12 2009 03:01 pm

Char Aznable wrote:

I still give Cartoon Network the finger for pulling the plug on Megas XLR. I want to find the suit that made that terrible decision, and shit on his porch.

Also, fuck The WB/CW for cancelling Mission Hill.

Dammit I want Megas XLR on DVD.

Title: Naunie Joined: Dec 07 2008 Posts: 1026

RobotGumshoe wrote:

Char Aznable wrote:

I still give Cartoon Network the finger for pulling the plug on Megas XLR. I want to find the suit that made that terrible decision, and shit on his porch.

Also, fuck The WB/CW for cancelling Mission Hill.

Dammit I want Megas XLR on DVD.

^that.

Posted: Aug 13 2009 04:56 pm

Aaaah, chicks dig giant robots...and so do I Sad

Posted: Aug 15 2009 07:47 pm

I know! They release shit like Totally Spies and fucking Tim and Eric on DVD, but no Megas!

Posted: Aug 16 2009 05:12 pm

My uncle burned me a CD of the all the episodes a few years back, but it never worked in my computer Sad

Posted: Aug 18 2009 01:33 pm

The 'tards at Nickelodeon canceled Invader Zim because of its violence and dark humor even though it had good ratings. At least they released the entire series on DVD.

Joined: Aug 26 2007 Posts: 2752

GPFontaine wrote:

Kojjiro! wrote:

"They didn't reach the right demographic"

Well, I want to know what this means, exactly, can anyone explain it.

It means that the network is trying to sell short blocks of time to advertisers and maximize the value of that time. Advertisers who sell stuff that kids want are interested in making sure that the people watching the show are kids. If a station presents a wide variety of programming during hours that kids should be watching they will not be able to maximize their profit. Advertisers aren't going to want to spend as much money no matter what the ratings are because the people watching at those times wouldn't care about their products.

you know, i never thought of that. And in a capitalist driven medium that really don't surprise me. What i don't get is, if a station is made aware that there target audience is not watching the programing, why not find out who the demographic watching the saw is and have commercials catered to that demographic rather then outright canceling it. If teens are watching Teen Titans for example, then have a bunch of car commercials, or face cleanser or hell even cell phones, commercials that can hit Teens with subliminal messaging and not be offensive to younger audiences . . . kind of like what primetime sitcoms have.

But then again it's always easier to scrap a show rather then put the time and effort into actually keeping it on the air, so i just answered my own question.

Posted: Aug 22 2009 02:29 am

MOGHARR wrote:

My uncle burned me a CD of the all the episodes a few years back, but it never worked in my computer Sad

I torrented all of the episodes, but they're in "recorded from the TV onto VHS" quality. It's definitely not the same as having an official DVD release.