Drive Gets Canceled

well i didn't know it at the time, but i was dead on when i called the show Drive a guilty pleasure, but commented that "if the poor ratings for last nights premier are any indication, it might be a short lived guilty pleasure", because Drive has been canned. after airing only three times fox has said 'enough' and ended it.

look, i'm not going to claim that Drive was a great show, i mean i gave it a B-, but this constant canceling of shows after only a couple airings is really starting to piss me off. i will be ok without knowing how drive ends, but there have been some really good shows that have suffered the same fate this season and those i am not ok with: Daybreak, The Knights Of Prosperity, The Nine and The Black Donnelly's to name a few.

why can't a show, especially a quality one (and the networks know which ones are quality and which ones aren't) get a chance to build an audience. Seinfeld, Cheers and Friends weren't huge hits when they premiered, but look what they turned into (huge hits and huge moneymakers for the networks).

yes, i understand that in a 1000 channel world the audience has so many options that the networks feel they need to grab an audience fast if they want the advertisers to stick around and they also want certain demographics and such and all television shows are really (at least on free tv), are things to kill time between commercials. i get all that, but that doesn't make it right, and a lot of the time that is a network just being really nearsighted.

look at Criminal Minds as a very modern example. that show took a little while to get going, but it did, and this year is actually beat Lost in the ratings a few times when they were on at the same time. also, the ratings for The Office have improved over its first season, so it can happen and it isn't a crazy notion either.

that's why i appreciate what nbc is doing with 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights, assuming they renew the latter like it looks as if they are leaning towards doing. these are two high-quality shows that deserve a chance at building an audience.

sure sometimes it just doesn't happen, look at Arrested Development. they got a couple extra seasons more then their ratings would have suggested, but it just never caught on (too bad cause it was a great show), but at least it had a shot. canceling a show after 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 episodes just isn't fair to the show or the audience that is getting into it or that might have gotten into it had they given them a chance.

back to Drive: fox hasn't said what they will do with the remaining episodes they have in the can, but putting them online seems to be the thing to do these days so i wouldn;t be surprised if that is what they do.