* The last seasons of ''GilmoreGirls'' and ''VeronicaMars'' had so much executive meddling from Dawn Ostroff and the other people at UPN who somehow fell upward into the executive suite of the new network that the slam-dunk "Girl Power Tuesday"' dream lineup which had been gushed about by critics and fans at the time of the merger ended up failing miserably, with both of them considered universally the worst seasons by the fanbases. This was due to The CW forcing the shows to hire writers that didn't know anything about either show's canon (certainly not helping was The CW not allowing Amy Sherman-Palladino to continue with ''Gilmore Girls''), insulting the intelligence of their fanbase by hyperfocusing on the lead actors of each show when both programs had been built on ensemble casts, forcing ''Veronica'' to abandon the season-wide arcs of the past for reviled "[[PoliceProcedural crime of the week]]" episodes, and finally the "Content Wrap" (an annoying advertising concept created by the network putting a brand front and center in a non-subtle way) deal with American Eagle Outfitters which forced the [[ProductPlacement Aerie Girls]] onto fanbases that considered them vapid, annoying, and completely against the spirit of both series, all in the name of selling overpriced underwear.

to:

* The last seasons of ''GilmoreGirls'' and ''VeronicaMars'' had so much executive meddling from Dawn Ostroff and the other people at UPN who somehow fell upward into the executive suite of the new network that the slam-dunk "Girl Power Tuesday"' dream lineup which had been gushed about by critics and fans at the time of the merger ended up failing miserably. This was due to The CW forcing the shows to hire writers that didn't know anything about either show's canon (certainly not helping was The CW not allowing Amy Sherman-Palladino to continue with ''Gilmore Girls''), insulting the intelligence of their fanbase by hyperfocusing on the lead actors of each show when both programs had been built on ensemble casts, forcing ''Veronica'' to abandon the season-wide arcs of the past for "[[PoliceProcedural crime of the week]]" episodes, and finally the "Content Wrap" (an advertising concept created by the network putting a brand front and center in a non-subtle way) deal with American Eagle Outfitters which forced the [[ProductPlacement Aerie Girls]] onto fanbases that considered them completely against the spirit of both series.

20th May '13 3:45:50 PM TiggersAreGreat

Send TiggersAreGreat a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Lists in alphabetical order are simply easier to work with.

Deleted line(s) 261 (click to see context) :

Added line(s) 273 (click to see context) :

Changed line(s) 275 (click to see context) from:

to:

20th May '13 3:36:23 PM TiggersAreGreat

Send TiggersAreGreat a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Changed line(s) 247 (click to see context) from:

to:

Changed line(s) 250,254 (click to see context) from:

* ''Series/AmericanDreams'' performed fairly decently in its original Sunday-night timeslot, but it wasn't enough. NBC played a wise move and moved the show to Wednesdays at 10 in direct competition with CBS' ''Survivor: Palau'' and ABC's ''Series/{{Lost}}''. The show was canceled despite many fan campaigns, but the producers were able to film a brief finally to WrapItUp, but NBC ultimately decided not to broadcast the finale, leaving many viewers hanging.
* The 2007 version of ''Series/BionicWoman'' didn't set the world on fire, but NBC nonetheless said it was sticking by the series when production and broadcast had to be halted due to the Hollywood writers strike. Cast members for upcoming episodes were announced, and NBC indicated several times that the show would be allowed to at least complete its 13-episode commitment. A DVD set of the episodes that had been aired was commissioned and promoted as "Season 1 Part 1". But this apparent show of support disappeared after a couple of months and NBC cancelled the show anyway. (There are likely other series impacted similarly, and to be fair there were likely other issues such as actor availability at work in the decision to cancel, but this example is notable for the public show of support given the series before the network turned its back on it, thereby, if nothing else, casting the ''impression'' of it being screwed.)
* ''Series/BoomTown'' was an interesting experiment. It featured numerous characters, overlapping storylines, out-of-order timelines, and unusual visual techniques. It could conceivably have caught on as a cult show but unfortunately it didn't find an audience. NBC deserves credit for trying something different and for bringing the low-rated show back for a second season. However, it loses that credit for its attempts to "fix" the series in Season 2, which removed all the elements that made the series interesting and essentially remade it into another typical cop show, which ended up getting cancelled anyway.
* ''Breakthrough with Tony Robbins'', which aired in Summer 2010, was screwed by NBC because it was the last program approved (for midseason) by programming non-wunderkind Ben Silverman before the merciful end of his tenure as president of the network. As anyone in the entirety of both NBC Universal and the universe but Ben and Tony knew nobody was going to watch what was pretty much a one-hour {{infomercial}} in primetime, the program got a cheap budget, the infamously lousy Tuesday at 8pm timeslot, and was absolutely not promoted at all beyond the required synopsis and a ''Series/{{Today}}'' fourth hour interview with Robbins (you get into Hota & Kathie Lee & Wine territory for a promo interview and you know your show is the network's shame of the moment). It also wasn't broadcast in HD, a KissOfDeath for a program in 2010 unless you're on public access. It died a swift and merciful death after two weeks to be shoved off to shame on NBC.com, with the episodes finally (barely) seeing the light of day on the ever-cursed OprahWinfrey Network.
* Things aren't looking so great for ''Series/{{Community}}''. Despite critical acclaim, a cult following,and getting picked up for a fourth season it seems that NBC are trying to screw this one over.

to:

* ''Series/AmericanDreams'': Performed fairly decently in its original Sunday-night timeslot, but it wasn't enough. NBC played a wise move and moved the show to Wednesdays at 10 in direct competition with CBS' ''Survivor: Palau'' and ABC's ''Series/{{Lost}}''. The show was canceled despite many fan campaigns, but the producers were able to film a brief finally to WrapItUp, but NBC ultimately decided not to broadcast the finale, leaving many viewers hanging.
* ''Series/BionicWoman'': The 2007 version didn't set the world on fire, but NBC nonetheless said it was sticking by the series when production and broadcast had to be halted due to the Hollywood writers strike. Cast members for upcoming episodes were announced, and NBC indicated several times that the show would be allowed to at least complete its 13-episode commitment. A DVD set of the episodes that had been aired was commissioned and promoted as "Season 1 Part 1". But this apparent show of support disappeared after a couple of months and NBC cancelled the show anyway. (There are likely other series impacted similarly, and to be fair there were likely other issues such as actor availability at work in the decision to cancel, but this example is notable for the public show of support given the series before the network turned its back on it, thereby, if nothing else, casting the ''impression'' of it being screwed.)
* ''Series/BoomTown'': This show was an interesting experiment. It featured numerous characters, overlapping storylines, out-of-order timelines, and unusual visual techniques. It could conceivably have caught on as a cult show but unfortunately it didn't find an audience. NBC deserves credit for trying something different and for bringing the low-rated show back for a second season. However, it loses that credit for its attempts to "fix" the series in Season 2, which removed all the elements that made the series interesting and essentially remade it into another typical cop show, which ended up getting cancelled anyway.
* ''Breakthrough with Tony Robbins'': Which aired in Summer 2010, was screwed by NBC because it was the last program approved (for midseason) by programming non-wunderkind Ben Silverman before the merciful end of his tenure as president of the network. As anyone in the entirety of both NBC Universal and the universe but Ben and Tony knew nobody was going to watch what was pretty much a one-hour {{infomercial}} in primetime, the program got a cheap budget, the infamously lousy Tuesday at 8pm timeslot, and was absolutely not promoted at all beyond the required synopsis and a ''Series/{{Today}}'' fourth hour interview with Robbins (you get into Hota & Kathie Lee & Wine territory for a promo interview and you know your show is the network's shame of the moment). It also wasn't broadcast in HD, a KissOfDeath for a program in 2010 unless you're on public access. It died a swift and merciful death after two weeks to be shoved off to shame on NBC.com, with the episodes finally (barely) seeing the light of day on the ever-cursed OprahWinfrey Network.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'': Things aren't looking so great for this show. Despite critical acclaim, a cult following,and getting picked up for a fourth season it seems that NBC are trying to screw this one over.

Changed line(s) 261,267 (click to see context) from:

* TheNewNormal was cancelled after only one season, despite it's strong cult following and general well reception. The only consolation fans got was that the season had wrapped up neatly with [[spoiler: Bryan and David getting married and Goldie giving birth.]]
* Not only was ''FreaksAndGeeks'' given an inconvenient Saturday-evening timeslot, but several episodes were left unaired (until Fox Family picked up the series) simply because the NBC executives didn't like them. For example, the episode "Kim Kelly Is My Friend" was left unaired because [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids NBC felt it was too violent/scary for what they (wrongly) perceived as a children's show]].
* The TV series ''Hunter'' was screwed over by NBC as, in the wake of the Rodney King beating and subsequent fallout, MoralGuardians were increasingly critical of a CowboyCop like Hunter being portrayed as a hero.
* The Creator/HankAzaria show ''Imagine That'' aired two episodes, and that was it. He got three episodes for ''Free Agents'' on NBC in 2011, which was a workplace dramedy mismatched with Whitney Cummings's self-titled three-camera sitcom.
* ''Series/TheJimHensonHour''. Despite being critically acclaimed and being nominated for several Emmy Awards, the show aired in the Friday night death slot, right against ''Series/FullHouse'' and ''Series/PerfectStrangers'', where it achieved very low ratings. After four episodes, it was moved to Sunday nights. However, the show performed ''even worse'' in the ratings, and NBC cancelled the series after only 9 of the 12 episodes had aired.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' spin-off ''Series/{{Joey}}'' got screwed by NBC in its second season when it was moved to the timeslot opposite ''AmericanIdol'' (a fate nearly as bad as, if not worse than, the FridayNightDeathSlot) and of course its ratings soon declined considerably. Even worse, the show was suddenly cancelled mid-season with no warning, leaving eight episodes unaired in the U.S. The only way to see them (other than downloading them of course) is to import the somewhat pricey season 2 DVD from Canada.
* When ''Kings'' first premiered, NBC had put it in the 8:00 PM Sunday timeslot. However, despite the show's unique concept, strong cast, and high production quality, NBC decided to relegate the fledgling series to Saturday nights after airing just four episodes, where steadily declining ratings eventually killed it.

to:

* ''TheNewNormal'': This show was cancelled after only one season, despite it's strong cult following and general well reception. The only consolation fans got was that the season had wrapped up neatly with [[spoiler: Bryan and David getting married and Goldie giving birth.]]
* ''FreaksAndGeeks'': Not only was this show given an inconvenient Saturday-evening timeslot, but several episodes were left unaired (until Fox Family picked up the series) simply because the NBC executives didn't like them. For example, the episode "Kim Kelly Is My Friend" was left unaired because [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids NBC felt it was too violent/scary for what they (wrongly) perceived as a children's show]].
* ''Hunter'': This TV series was screwed over by NBC as, in the wake of the Rodney King beating and subsequent fallout, MoralGuardians were increasingly critical of a CowboyCop like Hunter being portrayed as a hero.
* ''Imagine That'': This Creator/HankAzaria show aired two episodes, and that was it. He got three episodes for ''Free Agents'' on NBC in 2011, which was a workplace dramedy mismatched with Whitney Cummings's self-titled three-camera sitcom.
* ''Series/TheJimHensonHour'': Despite being critically acclaimed and being nominated for several Emmy Awards, the show aired in the Friday night death slot, right against ''Series/FullHouse'' and ''Series/PerfectStrangers'', where it achieved very low ratings. After four episodes, it was moved to Sunday nights. However, the show performed ''even worse'' in the ratings, and NBC cancelled the series after only 9 of the 12 episodes had aired.
* ''Series/{{Joey}}'': This ''Series/{{Friends}}'' SpinOff got screwed by NBC in its second season when it was moved to the timeslot opposite ''AmericanIdol'' (a fate nearly as bad as, if not worse than, the FridayNightDeathSlot) and of course its ratings soon declined considerably. Even worse, the show was suddenly cancelled mid-season with no warning, leaving eight episodes unaired in the U.S. The only way to see them (other than downloading them of course) is to import the somewhat pricey season 2 DVD from Canada.
* ''Kings'': When this show first premiered, NBC had put it in the 8:00 PM Sunday timeslot. However, despite the show's unique concept, strong cast, and high production quality, NBC decided to relegate the fledgling series to Saturday nights after airing just four episodes, where steadily declining ratings eventually killed it.

Changed line(s) 269,271 (click to see context) from:

* ''{{Medium}}'' was one of NBC's strongest performers (which isn't saying much), but was constantly put on hiatus and was treated like filler on its Monday lineup. Then CBS picked it up...and wins the FridayNightDeathSlot.
* ''MiamiVice'' itself was screwed by putting it on opposite ''{{Dallas}}'', then moving to Sunday night. In addition, the network was so eager to open up the show's timeslot, just after it was moved back to Friday nights, that they "burned off" four Season 5 episodes just before the finale. While two of them were largely inconsequential, the other two ("World of Trouble" and "Too Much, Too Late") wrapped up storylines going all the way back to Season 1. The latter also featured the final appearance of Pam Grier's character Valerie, and gave more context to Switek and Tubbs' decisions in the finale. The episodes didn't air on television until USA picked up the syndication rights a year later, but are included in the DVD box sets.
* In Germany, ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'' got the worst treatment in existence. The first run of season one was at 11PM at Fridays. The show got cancelled after 6 weeks due to low ratings. Two years later they brought it back at the smart timeslot of 1AM in the night of Friday to Saturday. Surprisingly, it worked, and the show has better ratings than the ten viewers before. They aired two-and-a-half seasons at this timeslot and occasionally had a rerun at Saturday afternoon, which seems to have drowned because of the more popular rival channel having ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' and ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' at that time. They now announced to show the remaining episodes, now in Saturday/Sunday nights at 3AM. I have no idea how a show could generate viewers at these slots, or do they accept Tivo now?

to:

* ''{{Medium}}'': This show was one of NBC's strongest performers (which isn't saying much), but was constantly put on hiatus and was treated like filler on its Monday lineup. Then CBS picked it up...and wins the FridayNightDeathSlot.
* ''MiamiVice'': This show itself was screwed by putting it on opposite ''{{Dallas}}'', then moving to Sunday night. In addition, the network was so eager to open up the show's timeslot, just after it was moved back to Friday nights, that they "burned off" four Season 5 episodes just before the finale. While two of them were largely inconsequential, the other two ("World of Trouble" and "Too Much, Too Late") wrapped up storylines going all the way back to Season 1. The latter also featured the final appearance of Pam Grier's character Valerie, and gave more context to Switek and Tubbs' decisions in the finale. The episodes didn't air on television until USA picked up the syndication rights a year later, but are included in the DVD box sets.
* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'': In Germany, this show got the worst treatment in existence. The first run of season one was at 11PM at Fridays. The show got cancelled after 6 weeks due to low ratings. Two years later they brought it back at the smart timeslot of 1AM in the night of Friday to Saturday. Surprisingly, it worked, and the show has better ratings than the ten viewers before. They aired two-and-a-half seasons at this timeslot and occasionally had a rerun at Saturday afternoon, which seems to have drowned because of the more popular rival channel having ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' and ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' at that time. They now announced to show the remaining episodes, now in Saturday/Sunday nights at 3AM. I have no idea how a show could generate viewers at these slots, or do they accept Tivo now?

Changed line(s) 274,279 (click to see context) from:

* ''Series/QuantumLeap'' was also moved around to different time slots, and fans overwhelmed the network with mail to keep it on the air. The series finale was just supposed to be a ''season'' finale. A [[DownerEnding rather depressing]] title card was added to the very last shot of the series in order to wrap things up.
* NBC managed to screw an actor along with a show once. One reason DavidTennant left ''Series/DoctorWho'' after an acclaimed run was to shoot the pilot ''Rex Is Not Your Lawyer'', which had a guarantee that the show would be picked up. But after a test screening where audiences didn't exactly understand the concept, they simply canned the show without reshoots and went back on the guarantee. As a result, Tennant was screwed out of not one, but two shows due to focus groups!
* [[Creator/NormMacDonald Norm [=MacDonald=]]] was fired from the "Weekend Update" segment of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' in 1997 at the insistence of NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, who claimed that [=MacDonald=] was "not funny", despite his popularity: Norm's appearances in sketches and on "Weekend Update" were frequently greeted with [[ShowStopper extended applause breaks]], to the extent that he once had to quiet down the StudioAudience during a mid-monologue sketch involving host Creator/SarahMichelleGellar by saying, [[BreakingtheFourthWall "Alright, I've gotta do this skit now."]] (One rumored reason for Ohlmeyer's distaste for [=MacDonald=] was the comic's constant quips about O.J. Simpson beating a double murder rap, because Ohlmeyer and Simpson were friends.) He later [[TakeThat got his revenge by being asked to host the show a couple of years later]], during which he poked fun at his firing, and said that while he still [[SelfDeprecation wasn't funny]], it was okay because the show had gotten "really bad", thereby making him look much funnier by comparison.
* This occurs in-universe in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. Jerry and George had been pushing for a long time to get their "show about nothing" approved by NBC. Finally, their first episode is aired and is successful. However, at the same time, the head executive who had approved the show goes AWOL and is replaced by a vindictive woman who cancels the show out of spite.
* ''SheSpies'' had this happen twice. It started out pretty well, with its first four episodes being aired on NBC. After that, the show was dumped into first-run syndication, with some markets airing it at unholy hours in the morning. However, the show was still pretty successful, and it got renewed for a second season. However, they decided to completely ReTool the show, taking it from a light-hearted action/adventure/comedy series (like a gender-flipped version of ''Chuck'') to a straight action series (basically, yet another lukewarm rip-off of ''Series/CharliesAngels''). As it turns out, the comedy aspect was one of the show's strengths. It was canned soon after.
* The [[UrExample granddaddy]] of all ScrewedByTheNetwork examples is [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original]] ''{{Series/Star Trek|TheOriginalSeries}}''. After two seasons of middling ratings, Creator/{{NBC}} announced its intent to cancel the show. However, [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow a national campaign of letter writing]], led by a fan named Betty Jo Trimble, resulted in an unprecedented backdown by the network. NBC renewed the show for Season 3...but also cut the show's budget by approximately half and placed the show in the FridayNightDeathSlot, when the show's demographic was likely to be doing anything but watching TV. Episode quality, and consequently ratings, suffered meteoric falls (although it was responsible for some of the series' most memorable episodes), followed by cancellation at the end of the season.

to:

* ''Series/QuantumLeap'': This show was also moved around to different time slots, and fans overwhelmed the network with mail to keep it on the air. The series finale was just supposed to be a ''season'' finale. A [[DownerEnding rather depressing]] title card was added to the very last shot of the series in order to wrap things up.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': NBC managed to screw an actor along with a show once. One reason DavidTennant left this show after an acclaimed run was to shoot the pilot ''Rex Is Not Your Lawyer'', which had a guarantee that the show would be picked up. But after a test screening where audiences didn't exactly understand the concept, they simply canned the show without reshoots and went back on the guarantee. As a result, Tennant was screwed out of not one, but two shows due to focus groups!
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': [[Creator/NormMacDonald Norm [=MacDonald=]]] was fired from the "Weekend Update" segment of this show in 1997 at the insistence of NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, who claimed that [=MacDonald=] was "not funny", despite his popularity: Norm's appearances in sketches and on "Weekend Update" were frequently greeted with [[ShowStopper extended applause breaks]], to the extent that he once had to quiet down the StudioAudience during a mid-monologue sketch involving host Creator/SarahMichelleGellar by saying, [[BreakingtheFourthWall "Alright, I've gotta do this skit now."]] (One rumored reason for Ohlmeyer's distaste for [=MacDonald=] was the comic's constant quips about O.J. Simpson beating a double murder rap, because Ohlmeyer and Simpson were friends.) He later [[TakeThat got his revenge by being asked to host the show a couple of years later]], during which he poked fun at his firing, and said that while he still [[SelfDeprecation wasn't funny]], it was okay because the show had gotten "really bad", thereby making him look much funnier by comparison.
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': This occurs in-universe in this show. Jerry and George had been pushing for a long time to get their "show about nothing" approved by NBC. Finally, their first episode is aired and is successful. However, at the same time, the head executive who had approved the show goes AWOL and is replaced by a vindictive woman who cancels the show out of spite.
* ''SheSpies'': Had this happen twice. It started out pretty well, with its first four episodes being aired on NBC. After that, the show was dumped into first-run syndication, with some markets airing it at unholy hours in the morning. However, the show was still pretty successful, and it got renewed for a second season. However, they decided to completely ReTool the show, taking it from a light-hearted action/adventure/comedy series (like a gender-flipped version of ''Chuck'') to a straight action series (basically, yet another lukewarm rip-off of ''Series/CharliesAngels''). As it turns out, the comedy aspect was one of the show's strengths. It was canned soon after.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': The [[UrExample granddaddy]] of all ScrewedByTheNetwork examples is this show. After two seasons of middling ratings, Creator/{{NBC}} announced its intent to cancel the show. However, [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow a national campaign of letter writing]], led by a fan named Betty Jo Trimble, resulted in an unprecedented backdown by the network. NBC renewed the show for Season 3...but also cut the show's budget by approximately half and placed the show in the FridayNightDeathSlot, when the show's demographic was likely to be doing anything but watching TV. Episode quality, and consequently ratings, suffered meteoric falls (although it was responsible for some of the series' most memorable episodes), followed by cancellation at the end of the season.

Changed line(s) 282 (click to see context) from:

to:

17th May '13 7:44:14 PM lizaphile

Send lizaphile a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Changed line(s) 33 (click to see context) from:

to:

* ABC started airing season 2 of ''Series/DontTrustTheBInApartment23'' and Season 3 of ''HappyEndings'' on tuesdays on '''October 23''', a '''month''' after the start of the season, and more importantly after the start of popular Tuesday comedies ''NewGirl'' and ''RaisingHope'' and new comedies ''Series/GoOn'', ''Series/TheNewNormal'', ''TheMindyProject'' and ''BenAndKate'', all of which share the same time slot as the B and HE. Then they began seriously effing with ''Apt. 23'' airing unaired episodes from Season 1 ''while airing episodes from Season 2 '''[[OutOfOrder at random]]''''', resulting in serious discontinuities between episodes (like June working on Wall Street and then not, then doing it again the next episode; the entire "James on ''DancingWithTheStars''" plot via airing order was scrambled beyond belief to the point a DubInducedPlotHole had to be created to scrub a ''DWTS'' mention). Then, on January 22, 2013, they cancelled the show and announced they were not going to air the remaining 8 episodes on the network. After the end of the 2013 broadcast season the missing eight episodes were placed online and {{Hulu}}, allowing some kind of closure.

16th May '13 10:35:11 AM XFllo

Send XFllo a PM notification explaining the badness of natter: natter-fy

Changed line(s) 346 (click to see context) from:

to:

This list shows the last 10 events of 351. Show all.

new edits

TV Tropes by TV Tropes Foundation, LLC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org.
Privacy Policy