Swamp Thing has been canceled at DC Universe, after only one episode has aired!
Obviously, the problem isn't ratings. io9 says it's due to budget concerns, after certain monies promised from North Carolina (where it's filmed) failed to materialize. Other stories say the higher-ups weren't confident in the show, and that it had been deliberately sequestered from the shared world of Titans and Doom Patrol (and its first season was shortened by three episodes). And yet other stories say it's a result of re-evaluation now that WarnerMedia is going to launch its own streaming service.
This comes on the heels of SyFy canceling Happy! and Deadly Class. I was kinda surprised by the latter; I thought it had the elements necessary to appeal to Millennials. Oh, and Legion is coming to an end after its upcoming third season, but that was planned. I'm not surprised by Happy!, as it was a very strange show -- I loved it, but I can see that it might have trouble finding its audience.
Also canceled: The Passage and The Gifted on Fox. Ratings were blamed, but also Fox has signed to deliver NFL Football Thursday, Major League Baseball and WWE Smackdown, which eats up a lot of prime-time space on a network with limited hours. (And Gotham and Lucifer are already gone, although Lucifer is now on Netflix).
And, of course, the Netvlix/Marvel marriage has ended in divorce, with Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist gone, and the last season of Jessica Jones dropping this month. As we know, that decision was made not based on tratings, but in retaliation for the upcoming Disney+ launch.
I don't see this as a backlash to the deluge of comics-related material, as a lot of it wasn't obviously comics-related material. But I can see the argument being made, and I'm sure it will be.
What do y'all think?
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I don't see it as a backlash to the deluge of comics-related material. Comics-related TV shows and movies are here to stay, and there is no longer any need for anybody to play Chicken Little on that front (not that you were).
Part of it, as noted with Swamp Thing, was budgetary. Part of it, also noted above, is the fallout from corporate deal-making -- so long, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones!
But also part of it is that we find outlets that aren't the major broadcast networks can be happier with lower overall viewship numbers -- here's looking at you, Supergirl -- but they also don't expect to keep any given show alive for years and years and years. The shows that have been around forever -- Grey's Anatomy, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Simpsons -- can keep going as long as they want to, but nobody's trying to make new shows last that long.
And, of course, the Netvlix/Marvel marriage has ended in divorce, with Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist gone, and the last season of Jessica Jones dropping this month. As we know, that decision was made not based on tratings, but in retaliation for the upcoming Disney+ launch.
The impression I had up to now is that Disney pulled the Netflix Marvel shows. This is the first I've heard that Netflix cancelled them in retaliation.
As for the occasional comment in the media that there are too many superhero shows, I'm sure that when not enough eyeballs are attracted they will slowly disappear. They would be crazy to cancel shows that make money.
Ratings are no longer the first or last word on why any given show gets canceled or renewed. They're a factor, yes, but unless a show is a complete disaster or a runaway hit, other corporate goals count for more in the assessment, particularly for shows that fall squarely in the middle of those extremes.
Here's a piece from The Washington Post that looks at how and why long-running shows are kept alive: "When Ratings Don't Define Success, More TV Series Are Staying on t...
ClarkKent_DC said:
Captain Comics said:
Right. Disney's purchase of multiple Fox assets has meant fhat the Fox network will do fewer TV shows and more sports, as noted in items 9, 10 and 11 here: "Gotham: 15 Reasons It Is Not Lasting Another Season"
Tracy is extremely disappointed with the cancellation of Swamp Thing. We recently watched the previous movies and TV series so I was kinda Swamp Thing-ed out, but we watched the first episode of the new series and plan to watch the rest. Too bad.
Now Deadline is saying the Swamp Thing cancellation wasn't because of an error calculating the North Carolina tax break: "‘Swamp Thing’ Cancellation Coverage Muddied by Tall Tales of Tax S...
Most of the stories in the last day or two have debunked the N.C. tax thing. The focus now is on AT&T's acquisition of Time-Warner, and the plans for a WarnerMedia streaming service.Swamp Thing may be a casualty of those plans, whatever they are.
I didn't mention in my OP that Preacher will end after the next season, The Tick has been canceled and Arrow, of course, ends after 10 more episodes. OTOH, there are plenty of comics properties in development all over the place, most of them non-superhero fare. Maybe I should change the title of this thread to Comics on TV: Latest Developments and just post everything that gets optioned, goes to pilot or gets canceled.
Would Warner Media compete with the DC streaming service or replace it, since DC is owned by Warner?
The speculation so far is that it would replace it, or that DCU would somehow fold into it (probably minus the comics). The WarnerMedia streaming service would include the Warner Bros. TV and film library, plus TNT, HBO, NBC, TCM and some other stuff. Price point will probably be in the $16-17/month range.
Richard Willis said: