Canceled Too Soon

There are about 1000 TV shows that were canceled too soon, but this doesn’t just apply to shows that were only aired for a single season. Sometimes after multiple seasons the show goes underappreciated and this leads to cancellation. These are some of my personal favorite shows that didn’t give enough attention on the networks they were on and therefore we as the audience didn’t really get closure.

So shows get canceled prematurely for a lot of reasons networks and streaming prioritize different things. On streaming services shows will get canceled after a single season because renewing a show means the service has to actually pay their writers, more for every season. Networks however would actually track ratings and viewer interest and if a network thought that they could grow their audience they would keep the show on the air. The longer a show runs the more money it makes for the network. There really isn’t a direct translation to streaming services in that way. In the sense that streaming services obviously make more money when they put out good content because it directly results in subscription fees. However, streaming services in general, but Netflix specifically seems to think that a lot of shows aren’t worth the increased writer fee after that first season.

The first show that I want to talk about is One Day At a Time. The show is actually a remake of a 70s show but was rebooted and aired in 2017. The show started on Netflix but was canceled in 2019 and revived on traditional network TV. One Day At a Time is the first show to go from streaming to network tv. It was officially canceled for good during its fourth season after 46 episodes. The show focused on a cuban-american family and in addition to the show being funny, entertaining and starring an incredible cast it also depicted some important and meaningful storylines. This show filled a gap in the market that really hasn’t been filled since. People of color dealing with immigration, sexuality, addiction, mental illness and racism. Personally I will watch anything with Rita Moreno in it and she is an absolute delight in this show. One Day At a Time is available to binge on Netflix and I would highly recommend watching it.

The second show I want to talk about is Young and Hungry. Young and Hungry first premiered on ABC Family (Freeform) in 2014. Also starring a rather diverse cast the show ran for 5 seasons and was initially going to wrap it's story with a movie but that plan was scrapped as of 2018. The show and its actors were nominated for several kids and people's choice awards, so we at the very least know that the general public wanted the show. But when have network executives ever actually listened to the public? The show was even thinking about a spin off series focusing on the main character's best friend and roommate Sofia but the series was not picked up.

Show cancellations are always difficult for fans but even more so when the shows aren’t wrapped up properly. And when the show obviously has the audience to keep going. But Networks only have money in mind, and streaming services have screwing over their writers in mind, they couldn’t care less about what audiences actually want. And for those who don’t know, when in negotiations with the writers it was Netflix that pushed the writers into strike. Netflix’s greed and inability to reasonably see how they could actually make the most money is going to be their downfall.