Tuesday, July 04, 2006
What's in a name?
CANCELLED! (Our New Life In) Everwood, ITV1, 2.00pm
If you listen very carefully, you can just about make out the sound of screaming and the gnashing of teeth in America, still. Why? Because at the last minute, popular WB drama Everwood got dropped from the line-up for the new CW network. For those of you not in the know, two of US TV's smaller networks, the WB and UPN are shutting down in September and joining forces to become the CW. Obviously with two networks' worth of shows scrambling for a place on one network's schedule, there were always going to be shows that didn't make it. Some (Smallville, Gilmore Girls) were dead certs from the word go. Others (Charmed, 7th Heaven) were reaching the end of their natural life and weren't being renewed anyway, thus thinning the herd a little. And others beyond that (Veronica Mars, Everwood, Supernatural) were unknown quantities, either due to low or falling ratings (the first two) or to being new shows which might not have amassed a significant enough fanbase in their first season (Supernatural, although we gather in hindsight that its future was never really that much in doubt).
Veronica Mars was perceived to be most at threat, due to its frankly appalling ratings, and the only hopes for saving the show were the critical acclaim and the fact that CW president Dawn Ostroff is a big fan of the show. Some of the show's more dedicated fans took matters into their own hands and started organising a campaign, including flying an plane over the network's offices with the slogan "Renew Veronica Mars! CW 2006" flying behind it. The fateful day came, and the CW line-up was announced. Supernatural survived. Veronica Mars survived. But Everwood - oh, this is a tragic tale - was ditched at the last minute after the 7th Heaven finale pulled in a huge audience and the show was renewed for at least a half-season in the slot that presumably would've gone to Everwood. Now, we've never seen 7th Heaven, but we're reliably informed that it's the worst television show ever created, so there's no wonder that Everwood's fans are a little upset by this turn of events.
And following that little cavalcade of nothingness, we'd like to point out to those of you who've never heard of the show but would like to revel in its demise, or indeed to see what all the fuss is about, can see it running weekdays on ITV1 at 2pm, under the craptastic title of Our New Life in Everwood. Presumably we can look forward to further reimaginings of the perfectly adequate titles for shows like Three Sisters Who Are Charmed Witches Living In San Francisco or Veronica Mars: PI in Training in the Small Californian Town of Neptune Beach. Hmmm. Anyway, this is the second episode of season two, and Andy thinks that Ephram needs more extracurricular interests to get into a good college. Course, if he'd known they were going to get cancelled three years down the line, he might have saved himself the concern.
By Steve :: Post link
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