BTW, last week CBS trotted out some dog and pony nonsense about how they weren’t bringing back Limitless on their network, but were shopping it around. Which…yeah. Dunno why they string fans of a show on like that. At any rate, these things rarely happen. In the rare cases where a show ends up on another network, it’s usually a deal that’s done before the upfronts. The PR happy talk is typically just nonsense fan service, and talk of “Maybe it ends up somewhere else…” is…well, let’s call it Pulling A Constantine.
At any rate, CBS officially pulled the plug on shopping hte show around today and it is indeed dead and buried.
You are missing out. Great show. And this is coming from someone that is completely buried under the thousand books, movies, tv shows, and CDs (yes, I still buy them) that I am desperately trying to get to once work lets up. Which ain’t gonna happen.
I’m not sure I know why it’s interesting without knowing what their revenues were before - was it mostly income from ads?
I’d also love to see what % subscriptions contribute (I suspect quite small but I’m sure the CBS honchos think they can increase it exponentially, given the way they pimp ‘CBS All Access’).
First off, as has been said a lot and in many places: shows are no longer “canceled”. This is a time of story arcs that cross a season, even in shows that aren’t specifically serialized, so cancellation announcements no longer happen because the networks who sell ad time for their shows want you to keep watching right to the end.
What are indicators of cancellation then? How do we know? In order from “Totally dead” to “Probably dead”:
Having a show’s order reduced. (Usually applies to new shows)
Having a rookie show not get picked up for a Back Nine
Having a show yanked from a time slot, pre-empted with little notice (as in, not for World Series games or stuff, but yanked to air a news program like 20/20)
Having your show given an extended off-air time, even with a full season pickup.
“Notorious” is the first cancellation of the year. It got its episode order pulled back to 10 episodes from 13.
Two that look dead:
Neither “The Exorcist” or “The Pitch” got a back 9 order, and both have had their time slots scheduled for mid-season replacement series. They’re done.
“Pure Genius” and “Timeless” are both in big trouble.
I’m kind of seeing Blacklist might be on the chopping block. It started so strong too and then turned into… meh. It seems like the only reason for it to limp on is for the spin-off I won’t be watching.
The problem is the entire her father kidnapping Liz and the baby plot, has been shit. Mr. Kaplan being held in a cabin in the woods story is moving too slowly and probably will have some stupid outcome. And James Spader hasn’t had enough scenes to do what he does best, give long monologues.
I won’t be surprised if Timeless gets canned. I’ve been watching it (I’m a sucker for time-travel shows), and while the last couple – Nazis and Mexicans – have been better, I don’t see much staying power.
But good god… Abigail Spencer is easy on the eyes.
The whole Liz family thing lost it for me. I was a lot more interested when it was Reddington and Liz and trying to figure out the truth. This far in… still don’t know the truth. I don’t care about the get the Liz family together piece or Tom the super-agent angel… again. Like a lot of shows that start off as really cool interesting but separate episodes with a loose tie… when that tie became more prevalent it started to lose me.
