We’ve all experienced the heartbreak of losing a favorite show too soon. It’s pretty common knowledge that bad ratings are the usual cause of a show’s demise, but it turns out, there are many reasons ratings suffer. This time, we look at the factors that make shows, good and bad, disappear.

• Why shows get canceled even though it seems like everyone is watching them
• Fox’s reputation for being a show-murderer
• All the various flavors of “this show isn’t profitable,” with “Friends” as an expensive cast example
• The Friday Night Death Slot
• “Firefly,” “Eureka” and other sadly canceled shows
• “Deadwood”
• Most fan efforts as a stalling of the eventual execution
• “Chuck” and the Subway campaign
• “Cagney & Lacy,” which actually had a long life post-save
• “Community”
• Nielsen ratings
• “Pushing Daisies”
• “Luck”
• How PR and advertising can trickle down to “not profitable”
• Who these people are who are watching “Two and a Half Men”
• “Arrested Development”
• The many lives of “Futurama” and “Family Guy”
• Same show, different network, a la “Buffy”
• If you like something, get other people to watch it. And not in a “Clockwork Orange” way.
• “Twin Peaks” and Beckett plays
• Listener mail! From Michelle, who came to us from Holly’s guest appearance on “Stuff You Missed in History Class” and writes about our yoga episode.
• How do television ratings work?

My research:

• Selter, Brian. “Shows on the Brink, Saved by Fans.”  New York Times. 5/13/2012
• Woerner, Meredith. “Fan Campaigns That Actually Saved TV Shows.” iO9.

Holly’s research:

• In Memoriam: TV Shows Cancelled Before Their Time
• The 20 Greatest Shows Canceled By Fox Before Their Time
• The nine highest-rated canceled shows

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