TV ¬rules the daily lives of thousands of millions of people around the world. From toddlers all the way to grandma and grandpa, everyone has a show or network that they enjoy watching. However, every network has an audience that it targets with different types of TV shows or broadcasts. For example; E! News targets people between the ages of 18-34, MTV targets people ages 12-34 and the CW targets people 18-34.
These three networks are among thousands of networks that earn billions of dollars in revenue per year by televising shows ranging from reality or fauxality to teen dramas and fantasy.
But what happens to these shows when or if they are not very successful?
Well, with just the snap of their fingers network executives can prevent any further development of shows that lose ratings. Some of the shows that get cancelled do, however, have a loyal fan base but just because ratings and money earnings weren’t up to par with expectations, their shows get cut.
We have all had TV shows that we have fawned over and that were cancelled. I alone have lost three of my favorite TV shows in the last four years. It started with the loss of “Heroes” in 2010, then with the loss of “Merlin” in 2012 and finally the loss of “90210” in 2013.
When these shows were cancelled I was immediately distraught because when they got cancelled we—the loyal fan base—were not given a closing chapter; instead we were left with an eternal wonderment of what could have been.
Cancelling shows without giving the fans that supported the show a proper ending is like cutting off in the middle of the Super Bowl and not allowing fans to know who won the game.
Networks make billions of dollars per year, and not giving the fans a proper finale that their favorite show deserves is a big slap to the face since the audiences were the ones that supported the series from the beginning.
Many shows end in the middle of a great plot or story arc that could have gone farther. Instead, it seems that the networks are more concerned about banking in on more money than they really need and forget about the people that helped maintain their wealth.
These multibillion-dollar networks have too often denied us the right to have a final season or a closing episode for a series to, at the very least, allow us to close that chapter of our lives as well.
I have suffered greatly at the loss of some of my favorite shows such as the ones listed above, but I refuse to lose hope that someday these shows will be picked back up by some network and finished off gracefully.
In the meantime I criticize the networks for choosing to abandon great shows like “90210” and “Merlin.” I will forever more wonder if Naomi Clark will ever find true love, or will Arthur ever rise up from the dead to rule once again over a troubled land, and how the heck did Merlin stay alive for hundreds of years?
These, my friends, are the questions that will haunt me for maybe the rest of my life, but within my grief I shall bathe in hope, or Heroes will be coming back to a television soon. So maybe if the demand is great enough, some of our favorite shows can come back from the grave.
