History ScrewedByTheNetwork / LiveActionTV

** That the latter writing campaign saved Star Trek is a myth created by Roddenberry, who also organized the ''fan campaign'', in reality it had little to no effect (and why would it, NBC knew how many people were watching, these numbers don't magically change if the audience starts writing letters). Though LucilleBall did make a big stink and threatened to leave which shook the house. But according to ''Inside Star Trek'' the true reason ''Series/{{Star Trek|TheOriginalSeries}}'' got a third season was because back then NBC's parent company was RCA, which owned the patent for color television. Star Trek was one of the biggest reasons why people bought color TV sets, and RCA made more money by selling them to Star Trek fans than NBC lost by airing Star Trek instead of something else.

* The popular hit Fox show ''NewYorkUndercover'', though it could be argued that it was screwed by the writers, rather than the network. In the third season, the show introduced audiences to Tommy [=McNamara=]. From that season onward, the show focused more around him, than the two original main characters, Julius Clearance and Eduardo Torres. As a result, the show lost ratings and was eventually cancelled.

** Not to outdo themselves, they seemingly swore to repeat history with ''Series/StargateUniverse'' and ''{{Caprica}}'', after a first season in the usual franchise timeslot for the former and an inexplicable seventh month hiatus for the latter, both shows were shoved into arguably the worst possible timeslot, Tuesday nights, against some of the most popular shows on television, left to die while the "Scifi Friday" timeslot was given away to...[[NetworkDecay wrestling]].

* And then there's ''AmericanGothic''. The show premiered at 10:00 PM on Fridays, a fairly-good time slot. There was plenty of press, promotions, a lot of hype. The show aired, got rave reviews from critics and fans alike...and then, for no apparent reason, scheduling issues began cropping up. Whether the executives in charge at {{CBS}} changed and wished to do away with the success of their predecessors (though CBS was transitioning from the disastrous cheapskate Tisch era of the network to Westinghouse ownership; the final-year Tisch era had left a Fox-lite schedule with post-NFL transition disasters such as an Andrew Dice Clay sitcom where he plays [[HypocriticalHumor a family man]], ''Bless This House'', and ''Central Park West'' with the new owners), didn't understand how good a thing they had, or didn't understand the show at all, all sorts of problems began plaguing the show. It would be preempted; there would be no episode shown, something else randomly stuck on in its place with no explanation; there would be gaps of several weeks between new episodes, sometimes filled by reruns but usually not; episodes were shown out of order, or never aired at all. Then, without warning, the show was completely yanked from the line-up and vanished for many months. Granted, the show was unusual, not for everyone, and very different from most of CBS' usual fare, but with so many praising it for its daring and disturbing nature, you'd think they'd have gotten a clue. It was certainly TooGoodToLast. Luckily the creators knew long enough ahead of time that the plug was being pulled, and managed to wrap up the main plot points. But even these final episodes were withheld for a long time, then suddenly plunked on TV one right after another as a three-hour movie "event".
* ''Series/RobotWars'' suffered this at the hands of TheBBC around the time of Season 5 (which had already aired on BBC Choice but not on [=BBC2=]). The BBC were trying to use it to get people to get satellite or cable to get their extra channels. The result was that they aired ''[[SpinOff Robot Wars Extreme]]'' twice and by the time Season 5 did air...Season 6 had already been filmed (and started immediately after Season 5 ended).

** The CW started screwing over a LOT of shows, particularly their half-hour comedies. ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris'', as well as ''The Game'' got cancelled. Another show, ''Aliens In America'', despite receiving good reviews and having decent ratings, got the worst treatment by not only being moved to the Sunday slot, but the later episodes were never advertised. (needless to say, its ratings were pretty much destroyed. Doesn't help that the Writers Strike caused the last few episodes of its first and only season to never be finished). While {{Reaper}}, a Dramedy about a young slacker who must be Satan's bounty hunter, did get the dignity of a second season, it still got screwed over by CW. Like the many other shows they screwed over, Reaper suffered mostly through lack of advertising. Go look at the ratings for each season 2 episode. They PLUMMET, and plummet hard, about halfway through.

* ABC originally slotted ''TwinPeaks'' against ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', against which it actually performed admirably...then shifted the show's timeslot repeatedly.

* ''Prankstars'', a Disney Channel ''{{Punkd}}'' clone, was killed halfway into its run when host Mitchell Musso was caught drunk driving and was blacklisted from the company and written out of ''PairOfKings''. It still aired in the United Kingdom for a few months to low viewership without any promotion whatsoever.

* ''ThePractice'' was having great success for six seasons. Then ABC decided to move it from Sunday nights to Monday, supposedly to get out of the way of the similar and strongly casted NBC show ''The Lyons Den''. 'Lyons Den' was cancelled in less than one year. 'The Practice' suffered a huge drop in ratings during that year. At the end of the seventh year, ABC refused to renew the show unless its budget was severely cut, citing "poor ratings". As a result, six of the main cast members were fired. Ironically, the show was put back on Sunday nights for its final season, and to show that David E. Kelley can make lemons into lemonade, he introduced a new character, Alan Shore, played by James Spader. The final season mostly dealt with Shore being wooed by a rival law firm, led by Denny Crane, portrayed by special guest star WilliamShatner. Spader and Shatner both won Emmys later that year for their performances, and both characters and actors were spun off onto a new show, ''Boston Legal'', which lasted for several years.

* The CBS PrimeTimeSoap ''2000 Malibu Road'' was cancelled after just six episodes...but not over ratings, which were quite fine -- it was because Creator/AaronSpelling didn't want it competing against [[Series/MelrosePlace another of his shows]].

** In Australia (where it was made) Channel 9 Screwed with it even further. During airing of seasons 2-3 episodes were moved (Out of Order) to the 5:30pm and 11:30pm time slots and due to 'censorship' of the earlier timeslot edited/deleted over 20 mins on each episode and deleted anything that sounded like a swear word.

** To expand on ''Enterprise'' being screwed over, an ongoing issue with the series was the fact UPN apparently had little control over what its affiliates actually aired. As a result, the series was chronically preempted in major markets in favor of local sports coverage, with ''Enterprise'' (and other UPN shows) being rescheduled to local-specific timeslots that were not counted by Nielsen ratings. UPN itself also aired a rebroadcast of ''Enterprise'' on the weekend, and this too was not counted in the Nielsens despite anecdotal evidence indicating many viewers were choosing to watch the weekend broadcast instead of the Nielsen-counted timeslot (the evidence for this is provided by series co-star Connor Trineer who, shortly before the series was cancelled, took to the pages of ''Starlog'' magazine to plead with viewers not to watch the weekend showing but instead watch the showing that counted). The fact UPN failed to achieve nationwide coverage was also blamed for the show's lower-than-expected ratings (in some markets it aired on local versions of the Home Shopping Channel!). To be fair to UPN, however, ''Enterprise'' wasn't all that popular with the Star Trek fanbase, so it's possible UPN adjusted its efforts accordingly.

** One of the factors of ''Caprica'''s cancellation was SyFy's decision to re-promote ''Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome'' from a webseries back into a backdoor pilot movie, and choosing to favor it alone over having two ''Battlestar'' spin-offs airing simultaneously. That was back in 2010. It has since been demoted back to a webseries, and SyFy remains noncommittal over whether or not it will even ''air'' the damn thing now, especially in light of the upreicidented amount of press coverage and fan interest generated by the leaked trailer for the premier episode, which SyFy has been sitting on for nearly two years now. Why does Syfy hate this Peabody Award-winning franchise? It's like they're determined to look as terrible as possible on the matter.

* ''Series/CentralParkWest'' is an interesting case. The show was originally a way for {{CBS}} to bounce back after their disastrous 1994-1995 season. The network threw their entire marketing clout behind the show, which was touted as the hottest and sexiest drama to ever air on a network, and bolstered it with a massive advertising campaign - huge banners on buildings, bus advertisements, commercials, you name it. For a reason only known to the executives, CPW's first two episodes were scheduled against anniversary episodes of the two biggest primetime soap operas airing at that time (''BeverlyHills90210'' and ''Series/MelrosePlace''). It also had to deal with the big affiliate shuffle in the wake of the {{Fox}}/NFL deal, where the new CBS stations just wanted to make sure viewers knew where they were on the dial first before getting into things such as network promotion. The show was trounced in the ratings, which would have led to its cancellation had {{CBS}} not already invested so much money into the program (roughly $13-15 '''million''' for the first season alone). The show was continually pre-empted, aired on different days (which led to its being trounced by ''PartyOfFive'') and then taken off the network while the show was retooled. When it came back, half the cast was gone and the series' theme was changed to a ''{{Dynasty}}''-esque clone. However, it didn't last even a handful of episodes before CBS pulled the plug for good.

* ''JackAndBobby'' wasn't treated very favorably by the ''TheWB'' It was hardly advertised at all compared to most of the networks other shows, and after winter break, there was NO advance warning of any new episodes airing, so unless you used an episode guide, you'd NEVER know the show was even still on. To be fair it did get a much more significant amount of advertising towards the end of the season, but the damage was already done as the ratings were far too low for it to have a chance of being renewed. Also ''JackAndBobby'' wasn't an exactly an easy show to sell based on marketing, from the ads it looked like a typical WB teen drama, but the commercials didn't even hint at the story of Bobby being president in the future(being told through flashforwards) People looking for a teen drama were caught off guard by the political storyline, and those who didn't mind the politics didn't watch the show because it didn't look too different from every other teen drama on the network. In the end the show's unique premise was its undoing, maybe it would've lasted longer without the future storyline.

* ABC screwed over ''Jake In Progress'' after its second season premiere by replacing its timeslot with ''TheBachelor'' and cancelling the show a few short months afterwards, leaving eight episodes unaired, ABC cited lackluster ratings in the premiere as its reason, it also screwed over ''Emily's Reasons Why Not'' by cancelling it after only one episode for the same reason, while 6 million viewers isn't a whole lot for a premiere, it hardly seems like a good enough reason for cancelling both of those shows, it seems more like ABC just wanted an excuse to cancel the shows so it could fill the timeslots with more of they're ''LowestCommonDenominator'' reality shows.

* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' was screwed over by [[SciFiChannel SyFy]]. They ordered what was supposed to be a sixth season - the final one - with six episodes. A week later, they then cancelled the show and took back the season six order, leaving the writers scrambling to wrap up the series.

* The Fox sitcom ''The Grubbs'' was cancelled TWO DAYS before it's premiere(supposedly due to bad reviews) without having even aired a single episode.

* ''Series/TheFinder'' looked to have it pretty good, ''Series/{{Bones}}'' creator Hart Hanson is hot stuff on Fox, given ''Bones'' is still on the air, it started in the post-''Idol'' Thursday slot, what could go wrong? Fox (surprise surprise) rearranged the ep order, randomly put it on a month hiatus, then with little advertisement shifted it to [[FridayNightDeathSlot Fridays]] so ''Touch'' could get the post-''Idol'' slot. ''The Finder'' supposedly was canceled for low ratings, but it did better than ''Touch'' overall before timeslot shift (comparing with ''Touch'''s aired eps). Since ''Touch'' is the new golden child with KS in it on Fox, it gets a second season and ''The Finder'', well... ends with everyone needing to be found.

* ''GoonShow'' founder MichaelBentine went on to make two acclaimed series of surrealistic comedy for the BBC, ''It's A Square World'' and ''Potty Time''. Very, very few of Bentine's shows survive today. Michael Bentine alleged that when he refused to incorporate political satire into his shows at the behest of very senior BBC executives, not only did the BBC rip up a contract for more shows, it deliberately wiped all the tapes so that Bentine could not profit from repeat fees or overseas sales. If this is true, then the BBC execs cut off their collective nose to spite their face, in screwing over an artiste who would not play ball at the price of destroying a critically admired comedy show.

*** Nickelodeon seems to be screwing ''iCarly'' over even more as of recent. This is further justified by the fact that the upcoming "iPear Store" episode didn't get a promo at all on the last Saturday night block prior [[note]] consisting of a new ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' and ''How to Rock'', and repeats of ''Series/ICarly'' and ''Series/{{Victorious}}'', in that order[[/note]], the most they got was a ''Series/BigTimeRush'' promo that said that was airing "right after an all new iCarly". Needless to say, fans did not take that well.

*** And to make matters worse, look at the current Saturday lineup. ''iCarly'', ''Victorious'', and ''Series/HowToRock''. All of which have more female main characters than males. Seems although Nick's target demographic is teenage girls, they learned which types of shows and cast attract male viewers as well as female viewers. Especially since their only show with a mostly male main cast is ''Series/BigTimeRush'' and aimed at girls, and currently new episodes filter in and out whenever the band can do an episode during tour off time, and the only pure male show, ''Bucket and Skinner'' gets the InvisibleAdvertising treatment.

** Speaking of ''Victorious''... [[http://www.mmm-mag.com/2012/08/m-exclusive-victorious-will-not-be-returning-for-season-four.html Sorry.]]

* The CBS PrimeTimeSoap ''2000 Malibu Road'' was cancelled after just six episodes...but not over ratings, which were quite fine -- it was because Aaron Spelling didn't want it competing against [[MelrosePlace another of his shows]].

* ''CentralParkWest'' is an interesting case. The show was originally a way for {{CBS}} to bounce back after their disastrous 1994-1995 season. The network threw their entire marketing clout behind the show, which was touted as the hottest and sexiest drama to ever air on a network, and bolstered it with a massive advertising campaign - huge banners on buildings, bus advertisements, commercials, you name it. For a reason only known to the executives, CPW's first two episodes were scheduled against anniversary episodes of the two biggest primetime soap operas airing at that time (''BeverlyHills90210'' and ''MelrosePlace''). It also had to deal with the big affiliate shuffle in the wake of the {{Fox}}/NFL deal, where the new CBS stations just wanted to make sure viewers knew where they were on the dial first before getting into things such as network promotion. The show was trounced in the ratings, which would have led to its cancellation had {{CBS}} not already invested so much money into the program (roughly $13-15 '''million''' for the first season alone). The show was continually pre-empted, aired on different days (which led to its being trounced by ''PartyOfFive'') and then taken off the network while the show was retooled. When it came back, half the cast was gone and the series' theme was changed to a ''{{Dynasty}}''-esque clone. However, it didn't last even a handful of episodes before CBS pulled the plug for good.

* Speaking of ''Victorious''... [[http://www.mmm-mag.com/2012/08/m-exclusive-victorious-will-not-be-returning-for-season-four.html Sorry.]]

* ''Series/{{Cupid}}'' was bounced around from the FridayNightDeathSlot to Saturday (the two nights nobody is ever home to watch a romantic dramedy) to Thursday against NBC's Must See TV, justifying its cancellation before the end of the season. Oddly enough, the show may be UnCancelled as ABC has given its creator permission to try again.
** An awful {{revival}} series was made. It bombed. End of story.

* ''The Goodies'' were shafted by a BBC executive who never liked them. They were denied funding and retreated to ITV, who cancelled them after a season or two.

** The Network started the whole Tonight Show mess by not renewing Leno's contract (even though the show was #1) & giving the show to O'Brien. Rumor was that the Tonight Show was a bribe to keep O'Brien at NBC & not do a competing show on another network.
* Things are not 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 add insult to injury, creator and showrunner DanHarmon got replaced without his knowledge.

* 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.
* The popular hit Fox show ''{{New York Undercover}}'', though it could be argued that it was screwed by the writers, rather than the network. In the third season, the show introduced audiences to Tommy [=McNamara=]. From that season onward, the show focused more around him, than the two original main characters, Julius Clearance and Eduardo Torres. As a result, the show lost ratings and was eventually cancelled.
* ''{{Wonderfalls}}'' (aired on {{Fox}}, of course!) was canceled after four weeks, one of the quickest deaths Fox has ever managed to give a show. But that was only the ''last'' of a number of choices on the part of the network that led to the show's demise: first, the show was developed at the same time as CBS' ''{{Joan of Arcadia}}'', to which at first glance it may seem strikingly similar in theme. Supposedly fearing it would draw too many comparisons, they held off the premiere for an entire ''year'', which backfired and led some to think it was a deliberate copy (as opposed to a coincidence), especially as ''Joan'' had proven successful and ''was still on the air''. Worse, it started airing 8:00 PM on a Friday, which had the dual misfortune of not only being the same time as ''Joan'' aired on CBS, but of also being the infamous FridayNightDeathSlot, whose name tends to be especially apt for non-family friendly fare... which of course, describes ''Wonderfalls''. In a sort of CoupDeGrace, Fox finally moved the show after its third week to Thursday, where it would ostensibly get better ratings... of course, they did this ''without telling anyone'', so it kind of defeated the purpose. Fox also ran promos for the fifth episode, only to pull the series before it aired.

* ''{{Series/Drive}}'''s first three episodes were aired over two nights; the fourth aired a week later, and then it was canceled, giving all of four episodes and nine days. This after the initial thirteen-episode order was split in half, so even if it hadn't been canceled it would have run for a month, followed by a three-month hiatus. This proves once again that TimMinear (who also produced both ''Wonderfalls'' and ''Firefly'', see above) and {{FOX}} go together like peanut butter and nitroglycerin. Minear is reportedly now two shows into a six-show deal with FOX.

* Bonnie Hammer and [[TheDragon Mark Stern]], while separating the schedules of ''{{Series/Stargate SG-1}}'' and ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' in what would end up the last season of the former and penultimate season of the latter, put the former after a remake of ''Series/KnightRider'' (and against ''{{Series/Monk}}'', which not only tops Nielsen cable ratings but is also on USA, whose scheduling is ''also'' done by [[strike:Wolfram]]Hammer and [[strike:Hart]]Stern) and delayed the latter's season premiere until ''six months'' after the finale last season. When the {{ratings}} fell, they canceled the former (on the [[AndYourLittleDogToo 200th episode airing party]], no less) and moved the latter to an even worse timeslot.

* Despite having its episodes aired horrendously OutOfOrder, ''{{Film/Tremors}}'' managed to become SciFi's highest rated program at the time. Nevertheless, it was canceled on the grounds that it didn't hit the demographic that SciFi wanted.

* When the BBC originally aired ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'', they broadcast it at inconsistent hours and preempted it with the ''Horse Of The Year Show''. This is the reason for some of the show's BitingTheHandHumor and malicious jokes about BBC television programming. Terry Jones even had to buy the original tapes from the BBC to prevent their destruction, as TV studios at the time were in the habit of taping over shows they no longer wanted.

* ''{{Series/Angel}}'' was suddenly canceled to the confusion of those making the show, as it was consistently high-quality with high-ratings. The reason the network gave was even more confusing: that the show was so popular and good, that they wanted the series to end on a high note instead of letting it die in obscurity. Possibly the only example of a show being canceled (ostensibly) because ''everyone liked it too much''.

* ''Series/AmericanDreams'' by NBC - the show performed fairly decently in its original Sunday night timeslot, but it wasn't enough. NBC played a wise move and moved the show to Wednesday nights at 10 in direct competition with CBS' ''Surviver: Palau'' and ABC's ''{{Lost}}''. The show was canceled despite many fan campaigns, but the producers were able to film a brief finally to {{wrap it up}}, but NBC ultimately decided not to broadcast the finale, leaving many viewers hanging.
* ABC originally slotted ''TwinPeaks'' against ''{{Series/Cheers}}'', against which it actually performed admirably...then shifted the show's timeslot repeatedly.
* Feeling that ABC wasn't promoting it enough, StephenKing spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to buy print ads for ''KingdomHospital''. The network then decided to change the timeslot to compete with ''{{Series/CSI}}'', meaning all the ads King bought gave the wrong time. King was probably pissed-off at this.

* On the note of Disney, ''Series/SoRandom'' started off pretty decently, but eventually it was moved to 7:30 PM, and during the summer, it had been consistently getting less than 3 million viewers per episode. [[hottip:*: Case in point: Once an episode got exactly 2.4 million viewers (2.399, close enough), only to be followed by a new Good Luck Charlie which got over 4 million.]] It might be that people aren't as pleased with Demi leaving the channel, but still.

* ''UglyBetty'' was screwed over by ABC. Its first three seasons aired consistently on Thursday nights at 8:00pm. However a slight drop in ratings resulted in the show being shunned to the FridayNightDeathSlot at 9:00pm in favor of "Flash Forward" taking its place (which ended up being canceled). ABC was clearly trying to end Ugly Betty. Betty's ratings were cut in half after the night and time switch, and its fans spoke out. Betty was then moved mid-Season 4 to Wednesday nights at 10:00pm with other comedy shows. Even though Betty's ratings improved, it was too late. The show officially ended at the end of Season 4, not finishing its original ordered run. The show did get a story sendoff, but it was rushed, and many plot points were never explained.

** And even ''Degrassi'' doesn't get off all that easy. The N's broadcasts were heavily {{bowdlerise}}d, the most notorious example being when they refused to air a two-part episode about abortion out of fear of the {{moral guardians}}. ItGotWorse once the show became really popular in America, which meant that The N was now forced into a position of [[ExecutiveMeddling pushing for creative changes]] on the Canadian writers.

** ''TheTroop'' is also treated pretty badly by the network, resulting in both shows being called the {{Red Headed Stepchild}}ren of the network. Nickelodeon was a bit more kind to ''TheTroop'' in the second season, giving it a plush Saturday-afternoon timeslot, right after ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai''. However, they decided to screw it even there by pre-empting the new episodes with ''{{WesternAnimation/SpongeBob SquarePants}}'' reruns! However, it was because the show was moved to a prime-time timeslot on Saturday nights!

*** Nickelodeon seems to be screwing ''iCarly'' over even more as of recent. This is further justified by the fact that the upcoming "iPear Store" episode didn't get a promo at all on the last Saturday night block prior [[hottip:*: consisting of a new ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' and ''How to Rock'', and repeats of ''Series/{{iCarly}}'' and ''Series/{{Victorious}}'', in that order]], the most they got was a ''Series/BigTimeRush'' promo that said that was airing "right after an all new iCarly". Needless to say, fans did not take that well.
** Not to mention ''Taina'', for those unaware or it. It was about, Taina, a teenaged Puerto-Rican girl who aspires to be a singer and actress. Other cast members included a black guy friend that is sometimes the [[OnlySaneMan voice of reason]], a guy that sometimes plays guitar for Taina's performances, and another aspiring actress who acts mostly as a rival but sometimes a friend to the main character. [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks And if none of that sounds familiar]], Taina is enrolled in [[{{Series/Victorious}} Manhattan Performing Arts School]]. It also received similar ratings to ''Victorious'' and was moved to Saturday nights for the second season (which aired from January to May of 2002) where ratings doubled. Aside from being a popular show, it was cancelled that summer. Number One reason. [[GirlShowGhetto Nick thought it only appealed to girls.]] At the time, Nickelodeon's target audience were mostly males. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForLittleGirls Turns outs guys did like the show too.]]

* {{FOX}}'s ''{{Series/Titus}}'' was simply shot down, no questions asked, mid-season, because of the show's twisted humor (culminating in a two-part episode about Titus and his friends being accused of hijacking a plane and a MissingEpisode where wild teen Amy confronts the male babysitter who sexually molested her as a kid). Its replacement? ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pitts The Pitts]]'', one of the biggest failures FOX has ever forced on, running five episodes before the timeslot was canned and forgotten (save for a quick, cheap mention on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'').
** Another contribution to the ''Titus'' cancellation came when creator ChristopherTitus got called in to meet one of the head honchos at FOX. Turned out that the exec wanted to break up Erin and Titus as they had done with ''DharmaAndGreg''. Titus naturally objected as the show was based on real life, and Erin and Titus had never broken up in real life. Seems Titus' objection was a little too rough for the execs, as the next week all the promos completely stopped and the show ended up canceled not long after that. Ironically, Titus did break up with Erin Carden in 2006 (according to the comedy special ''Love is Evol'') and now Titus is looking to create a SpiritualSuccessor to his first sitcom, which shows Titus as a divorcé dating a 29-year-old model with a BadassFamily).

* JossWhedon has recently joked that ''{{Series/Dollhouse}}'''s (aired in the infamous FridayNightDeathSlot) unexpected ''renewal'' was the network screwing him around, saying that they told him, "whoops, we forgot to cancel your show, you're going have to make more episodes".

* The BBC agreed to co-fund ''{{Series/Rome}}'' with {{HBO}} to the tune of $15 Million per season (which is a lot of money to a British broadcaster), but treated it like an embarrassment when it came time to air the show. They decided to play up the sex scenes in the promos and re-edited the first three episodes into two, losing an hour of character and story development in favor of the sex scenes and blood, to the utter fury of the director Michael Apted. The British audience was not impressed and immediately tuned out, resulting in poor ratings. The BBC, apparently unrepentant about their mistake, then pulled out of funding for Season 3 and put Season 2 on the smaller BBC-2 at about 11:00 PM on Friday nights. (Actually, ''Rome'' was always only on [=BBC2=] - few imports/co-productions air on the main channel nowadays, with ''{{Damages}}'' being the only recent exception.)
** The BBC's withdrawal concerned the higher-ups at HBO, who consulted the accountants. The accountants informed them that they could not afford the show without the BBC's 15% budget contribution, and the show had only gotten good American ratings for Season 1 due to a strong lead-in from ''TheSopranos'', which would not be airing ahead of Season 2. HBO decided to pull the plug before Season 2 was written, giving the producers plenty of warning (but only 10 episodes) to resolve the 24-odd further episodes of plot they had planned. Of course, when Season 2 aired, it maintained its audience and HBO could have afforded to have kept it on the air even without the BBC, but it was way too late by that point as the cast had scattered to other projects.

* ''Series/GilligansIsland'', despite having decent ratings, was cancelled because one CBS executive hated the premise and wanted to give its timeslot to ''{{Radio/Gunsmoke}}'', which was the show that originally was going to be cancelled. Luckily for James Arness, the exec's wife was a fan of the western show.

* ''ThePartridgeFamily'' was a modest ratings success its first 3 years, debuting at #26 and breaking the top 20 in seasons 2 and 3. Then ABC moved it to Saturday nights, opposite ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' (in the middle of 5 consecutive seasons at #1). Ratings tanked, and the show was canned.

* For its first 11 years, ''MurderSheWrote'' dominated its timeslot of Sundays at 8:00 PM, always finishing in the Top 20 (and often in the Top 10) each year. Then, for Season 12, CBS abruptly moved it to Thursdays at 8:00...against NBC's ''{{Series/Friends}}'', which was already the #1 show in America. Of course the ratings for ''Murder'' tanked, and ''of course'' the show was cancelled at the end of the season. The result was so predictable and blatantly obvious that the only rational explanation for the move is that somebody at CBS wanted to create an excuse to kill ''Murder''. There really could be no other reason.

* ''{{Film/Terminator}}: TheSarahConnorChronicles'' opened with strong numbers, only to be interrupted by the writers' strike which sidelined its planned lead-in to ''Series/TwentyFour''. Instead of trying to gain viewers in Season 2, FOX shoehorned it into a lead-in spot for ''Series/PrisonBreak'' (which had seen a dramatic crash in viewership and popularity). The show was then put on a three-month hiatus and upon its return, rather than being scheduled as the lead-in to the returning ''24'', FOX moved it to the FridayNightDeathSlot and needless to say it was over from there.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' was renewed for a fourth and fifth season by the Sci-Fi Channel, and the show's writers plotted out the fourth season under the assumption that story threads, including the season cliffhanger, would be resolved in a fifth, final season. Four days before production ended on the final episode shot of the season (and several weeks after the actual finale had been filmed, owing to episodes being shot out of order), Sci-Fi abruptly cancelled the series. The writers were given a rare opportunity to wrap up the arc in the ''Peacekeeper Wars'' miniseries (produced independently and, ironically, broadcast by Sci-Fi) but it was still a case of having to take a full seasons' worth of story threads and condense them down into a four-hour miniseries.

* ''MyNameIsEarl'' in Germany 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 2 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?

* Shall no one mourn the loss of ''KyleXY''?. After 3 successful seasons (which most people agreed that it really didn't degrade in quality at any point) it appeared that mainly after the slow decline of ''{{Series/Heroes}}'' and ''{{Series/Smallville}}'' viewers ABCFamily decided that [[MagicRealism Superhuman Realism]] based shows weren't really their bag anymore. So ''Kyle'' was suddenly canceled and "several" new dramatic based shows mainly ''TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager'' along with several press statements that ABC Family would be focusing on more realistic shows in the future.
** ABC Family also said ''KyleXY'' was axed due to low ratings. It is true that ratings dropped after ''Secret Life'' premiered, but ''Kyle'' was still pulling in an average of 1.5 million. That's pretty good for ABC Family, but since it wasn't ''Secret Life'''s average of 3 million, it was "low ratings" and worthy of cancellation.

* In an example of an ''entire network'' screwing its own self, {{UPN}}, a broadcast channel created by Paramount Studios that was supposed to become the new {{FOX}} Network. Unfortunately, that never happened, and the only reason the network stayed alive at all for just a little over 10 years (even after airing shows that were either universally panned or just hardly watched at all) was simply ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Basically ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' was (and for most critics of the channel still is) UPN's flagship series, and the strong Trek fanbase and viewership was truly the sole thing keeping the small network's head above water (but just barely). After ''Voyager'''s end season many wondered if UPN would survive. Fortunately a strong vocal campaign to create a new Trek series was heard and ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' was created. Unfortunately, many believe that even ''Enterprise'' was screwed over in its own way by the network leading it to become the 2nd shortest running Trek series (next to ''The Original Series'' itself). Simply by sheer irony, by screwing over Star Trek they essentially screwed themselves into network cancellation, and finally merging with its main competitor the WB.

* The ''Series/GrowingPains'' spin-off ''Just the Ten of Us'' was screwed by its network {{ABC}} because of politics. Although ''Just the Ten of Us'' did well in the ratings on Friday nights (and frequently won its 9:30 p.m. timeslot), ABC wanted all shows in the TGIF block to be produced by Miller-Boyett Productions (as was the case with ''Series/FullHouse'', ''Series/FamilyMatters'' and ''Series/PerfectStrangers''). Ultimately, after finding no other suitable timeslot for ''Just the Ten of Us'' in time for the 1990-91 season, the series was canceled outright and replaced by a short-lived series called ''Going Places'' (which lasted only one season).

* ''EleventhHour''. The US Version had consistently good ratings, but was cancelled by CBS because it essentially didn't get the ratings of its lead-in ''CSI''.
* The same fate nearly befell ''{{Unforgettable}}'' on CBS four years later; Top 20 ratings and first for the timeslot, but almost no buzz at all and it didn't do better than what ''TheGoodWife'' did the previous season, so it was canceled at the end of the season, only to be UnCanceled for a summer run in 2013 (or sooner if something flames out) upon CBS realizing {{Lifetime}} and {{TNT}} were kicking the tires of the show to bring it (and CBS "It Girl" Poppy Montgomery) to their network.

* Let's produce [[Series/TheCape a comic-book superhero show]] to replace [[{{Series/Heroes}} that other comic-book superhero show we had]]. Let's promote the hell out of it for two or three months in advance. Now, let's put it in a timeslot where it's directly competing against [[Series/BeingHumanRemake this other new show that has pretty much the same audience]] on [[SciFiChannel that other network we own]], because we like that show a whole lot more anyway. Then, when the ratings start to smell worse than day-old roadkill, let's cancel it and only air the final episode on our website! Because hey, we're NBC, and that's how we roll.
* ''{{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.

* TheWB was quick to cancel ''Run Of The House''. So quick that the show didn't even to get to finish its first and only season (the last few episodes were only ever aired overseas) it wasn't like the shows ratings were that bad either, after all it had ''Series/WhatILikeAboutYou'' as a lead-in.

* TheWB screwed over ''Series/BirdsOfPrey'' by trying to turn it into ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** WAY too much Helena/Reese, too little Barbara/Dinah.

** Network moved show from Toronto to L.A., thereby putting a serious crimp in its budget.

*** It's true that CBS did cancel a number of shows, some of which were still popular. But in the network's defense, the shows they brought in to replace the cancelled shows included ''Series/AllInTheFamily'', ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow'', ''{{Series/Mash}}'', ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'', ''{{Maude}}'', ''Series/GoodTimes'', ''OneDayAtATime'', and ''TheJeffersons''.

** Ironically the show that replaced ''Moesha'' - ''OneOnOne'' - ended up suffering almost the exact same fate (ExecutiveMeddling during the last season, an unresolved cliffhanger) after the UPN/WB merger, the CW cancelled ''OneOnOne'' a mere THREE days after the network's debut, the CW execs claimed they intended to renew the show but simply couldn't find a spot for it on their schedule, which sounds like a really lame excuse. It's obvious the CW was more interested in focusing all their attention on the shows carried over from TheWB while barely giving the UPN shows the time of day, so the execs more then likely cancelled ''OneOnOne'' just so they could free up space for they're new shows.
* ''{{Eureka}}'' was screwed over by [[SciFiChannel SyFy]]. They ordered what was supposed to be a sixth season - the final one - with six episodes. A week later, they then cancelled the show and took back the season six order, leaving the writers scrambling to wrap up the series.

** ''Series/{{Duel}}'' was bumped to the FridayNightDeathSlot for Season 2, against ''ThePriceIsRight $1,000,000 Spectacular'' (itself a death sentence for any game show).

** The original (1957-64) nighttime version of ''ThePriceIsRight'' flourished Wednesdays at 8:30 PM on NBC, making it the top-rated primetime game show. In 1961, the sponsors wanted to tinker with it so NBC moved the show to Mondays at 8:30. Ratings slid, so a year later the show got moved to 9:30 PM Mondays, opposite ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. ''Price'' hemorrhaged ratings, so on February 1, 1963 it was moved to Fridays at 9:30. NBC wanted a show that attracted a younger audience than ''Price'' sponsors wanted, so they optioned the sitcom ''Harry's Girls'' to replace ''Price'' that Fall. [[NetworkToTheRescue ABC stepped in]] and acquired both versions of ''Price'' for an amount NBC wasn't willing to match. The move was costly, though, as ABC couldn't afford the nighttime show in color and not every market had an ABC affiliate (48 markets aired ''Price'' on their CBS station). Nighttime ended in September 1964, and daytime a year later.

** Every {{GSN}} original, ever. The typical formula for an original game here A) introduce it with some fanfare, B) constantly jack its time slot around, C) show a metric buttload of reruns while the show's still making new episodes, D) not announce the new seasons ''at all'', and E) gradually stop making new episodes. ''{{Series/Lingo}}'' suffered the most in its original five seasons.

** CBS also screwed ''[[{{Password}} Million Dollar Password]]'' by cancelling it simply because it didn't hit their target demographic, despite the fact that it frequently pulled the highest ratings in its timeslot.

** ''LizzieMcGuire'', which helped put the Disney Channel back on the map, was cancelled after fulfilling its 65-show order.
** ''EvenStevens'', also a victim of the 65-episode rule.

** ''PhilOfTheFuture'', which was cancelled well before the 65-episode mark, much to the confusion and dismay of fans. The reason Disney gave the cast was that since the show was so popular (and making them so much money), they had a choice: produce a third season of the show or use the money to create another show with the potential to be just as popular. They chose the latter and despite many fans to save the show, the show remained cancelled.

* ''{{Spooks}}'' got this bad during its two runs on cable TV in the United States. It first landed on A&E at a time when the network was in the process of [[NetworkDecay decaying]] from its original image as a home for British imports into the reality hive it is today. After getting decent midweek slots for series one and two, the network decided to push series three to Saturdays at 10 to make room for reality in that midweek slot. Ratings suffered, but A&E was already locked into a contract for series four. So, they pulled repeats off the schedule during the long hiatus between series, and dumped series four on Fridays at 11, where the ratings dropped so hard, so fast that it was pulled after two weeks.

* ''Series/TheFinder'' looked to have it pretty good, ''{{Bones}}'' creator Hart Hanson is hot stuff on Fox, given ''Bones'' is still on the air, it started in the post-''Idol'' Thursday slot, what could go wrong? Fox (surprise surprise) rearranged the ep order, randomly put it on a month hiatus, then with little advertisement shifted it to [[FridayNightDeathSlot Fridays]] so ''Touch'' could get the post-''Idol'' slot. ''The Finder'' supposedly was canceled for low ratings, but it did better than ''Touch'' overall before timeslot shift (comparing with ''Touch'''s aired eps). Since ''Touch'' is the new golden child with KS in it on Fox, it gets a second season and ''The Finder'', well... ends with everyone needing to be found.

* ''Headbanger's Ball'' was a popular show that aired Saturday nights on {{MTV}} beginning in 1987. The Ball (as it was nicknamed by its fans) aired for two hours and played hard rock, HeavyMetal, and HairMetal music videos. The show also featured interviews with musicians as well as "road trip" specials where the cast of the show would accompany bands to various locations around the world. It was one of the most popular shows on {{MTV}} and for a while was one of the network's flagship shows. The show even remained popular during the 1990s, when alternative rock and hip-hop became the most popular genres of music. But in January of 1995, ''Headbanger's Ball'' was abruptly canceled without warning. The host of the show, Riki Rachtman, was called by the network and informed that he would not need to come into work the following week. Rachtman pleaded with the network to allow him and the rest of the crew to make a "farewell episode" for the show, but the request was denied. Fans of the ''Headbanger's Ball'' were outraged by the news and to this day many of them consider the cancellation of the Ball to be the moment when [=MTV=] JumpedTheShark. [=MTV=] has never explained their reason for canceling the show. ''Headbanger's Ball'' was UnCanceled in 2003, but many believe that the new version of show to be inferior to its predecessor.

** Many daytime game shows whose network was run by Fred Silverman.

* Disney originally was pretty nice to the ''PowerRangers'' franchise, going so far as to show episodes on three different channels. Ratings declined eventually (which many blame on the DorkAge of Bruce Kalish), and the last season, ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' was delegated to a Saturday-morning spot among tween sitcoms, where it was constantly preempted in the West Coast because of football and golf, with many stations airing it during ungodly hours, or refusing to at all because it cut into the ability to fulfill their EdutainmentShow requirements. It's been stated by [=RPM's=] first showrunner that Disney is embarrassed to show the series, not to mention produce it.
** Even more, after ''PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'', Disney tried to take control of the ''Super Sentai'' portion of the series to tone down the violence. Toei wasn't thrilled.

** ''TheTroop'' is also treated pretty badly by the network, resulting in both shows being called the {{Red Headed Stepchild}}ren of the network. Nickelodeon was a bit more kind to ''TheTroop'' in the second season, giving it a plush Saturday-afternoon timeslot, right after ''PowerRangersSamurai''. However, they decided to screw it even there by pre-empting the new episodes with ''{{WesternAnimation/SpongeBob SquarePants}}'' reruns! However, it was because the show was moved to a prime-time timeslot on Saturday nights!

* ''Series/TheHardTimesOfRJBerger'', the best live-action show MTV has had in ''years'', began with a large viewer rating of 2.6 million viewers, but dropped drastically by the second season, causing the show to be cancelled.

* ABC's apparent reaction to ''Commander In Chief'' winning Emmys for its acting was to kill the show. They put it on hold during the Winter Olympics, then moved it to a different timeslot afterwards without properly announcing this. Ratings suffered, so they canceled it.

** TeenNick (and its predecessor, The N) is quickly shaping up to be the teenager's equivalent to Fox when it comes to screwing shows over. If you're a show that airs on The N in the US and your name is not ''{{Degrassi}}'', you ''will'' get screwed. Examples range from the canceled ''SouthOfNowhere'' and ''O'Grady'' to the ''not''-canceled-but-completely-forgotten-about-until-the-network-suddenly-decided-to-drop-the-next-season-in-a-frenzy-of-new-episodes-about-eighteen-months-too-late ''Beyond the Break''. The majority of the network's non-''Degrassi'' schedule? Reruns of shows that originally aired on other networks, only about half of which came from {{Nickelodeon}} (like ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'', ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'', and ''{{Zoey 101}}'', along with the occasional ''Series/ICarly'' or ''Series/BigTimeRush'').

** ''TheTroop'' is also treated pretty badly by the network, resulting in both shows being called the {{Red Headed Stepchild}}ren of the network.
*** Nickelodeon was a bit more kind to ''TheTroop'' in the second season, giving it a plush Saturday-afternoon timeslot, right after ''PowerRangersSamurai''. However, they decided to screw it even there by pre-empting the new episodes with ''{{WesternAnimation/SpongeBob SquarePants}}'' reruns! However, it was because the show was moved to a prime-time timeslot on Saturday nights!

*** Nickelodeon seems to be screwing ICarly over even more as of recent. This is further justified by the fact that the upcoming "iPear Store" episode didn't get a promo at all on the last Saturday night block prior [[hottip:*: consisting of a new ''Victorious'' and ''How to Rock'', and repeats of ''iCarly'' and ''Victorious'', in that order]], the most they got was a ''BigTimeRush'' promo that said that was airing "right after an all new iCarly". Needless to say, fans did not take that well.

* {{CBS}} in 1979 cancelled ''Series/WonderWoman'' and ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and never went forward on the ''DoctorStrange'' and ''CaptainAmerica'' pilots not because their ratings were poor because they didn't want to be seen as "The SuperHero Network." Only ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk,'' survived.

* The same fate befell ''{{Unforgettable}}'' on CBS four years later; Top 20 ratings and first for the timeslot, but almost no buzz at all and it didn't do better than what ''TheGoodWife'' did the previous season.

** That the latter writing campaign saved Star Trek is a myth created by Roddenberry, who also organized the ''fan campaign'', in reality it had little to no effect (and why would it, NBC knew how many people were watching, these numbers don't magically change if the audience starts writing letters). Though LucilleBall did make a big stink and threatened to leave which shook the house. But according to ''Inside Star Trek'' the true reason ''{{Star Trek|TheOriginalSeries}}'' got a third season was because back then NBC's parent company was RCA, which owned the patent for color television. Star Trek was one of the biggest reasons why people bought color TV sets, and RCA made more money by selling them to Star Trek fans than NBC lost by airing Star Trek instead of something else.

* ''Headbanger's Ball'' was a popular show that aired Saturday nights on {{MTV}} beginning in 1987. The Ball (as it was nicknamed by its fans) aired for two hours and played hard rock, HeavyMetal, and HairMetal music videos. The show also featured interviews with musicians as well as "road trip" specials where the cast of the show would accompany bands to various locations around the world. It was one of the most popular shows on {{MTV}} and for a while was one of the network's flagship shows. The show even remained popular during the 1990s, when alternative rock and hip-hop became the most popular genres of music. But in January of 1995, ''Headbanger's Ball'' was abruptly canceled without warning. The host of the show, Riki Rachtman, was called by the network and informed that he would not need to come into work the following week. Fans of the show were outraged and to this day many of them consider the cancellation of the Ball to be the moment when [=MTV=] JumpedTheShark. [=MTV=] has never explained their reason for canceling the show. ''Headbanger's Ball'' was UnCanceled in 2003, but many believe that the new version of show to be inferior to its predecessor.

* ''ThePractice'' was having great success for six seasons. Then ABC decided to move it from Sunday nights to Monday. ABC wanted the Sunday night position for the new show ''The Lyons Den''. 'Lyons Den' was cancelled in less than one year. 'The Practice' suffered a huge drop in ratings during that year. At the end of the seventh year, ABC refused to renew the show unless its budget was severely cut, citing "poor ratings". As a result, six of the main cast members were fired. Ironically, the show was put back on Sunday nights for its final season, and to show that David E. Kelley can make lemons into lemonade, he introduced a new character, Alan Shore, played by James Spader. The final season mostly dealt with Shore being wooed by a rival law firm, led by Denny Crane, portrayed by special guest star WilliamShatner. Spader and Shatner both won Emmys later that year for their performances, and both characters and actors were spun off onto a new show, ''Boston Legal'', which lasted for several years.

* CBS's version of ''MatchGame'' flourished at 3:30 PM Eastern, but somebody at the network got [[SarcasmMode the great idea]] to move it to 11 AM Eastern, following ''ThePriceIsRight''. Ratings tumbled as several major markets blacked out ''Match Game'' in favor of syndicated fare. Six weeks later, ''Match Game'' was reslotted at the low-clearance 4 PM Eastern spot (previous occupant {{Tattletales}} was moved to 10 AM, ''Price"" to 10:30) where it lived out its tenure to April 1979.

* CBS's version of ''MatchGame'' flourished at 3:30 PM Eastern, but somebody at the network got [[SarcasmMode the great idea]] to move it to 11 AM Eastern, following ''ThePriceIsRight''. Ratings tumbled asseveral major markets blacked out ''Match Game'' in favor of syndicated fare. Six weeks later, ''Match Game'' was reslotted at the low-clearance 4 PM Eastern spot (previous occupant {{Tattletales}} was moved to 10 AM, ''Price"" to 10:30) where it lived out its tenure to April 1979.

* ''Series/LessThanPerfect'' was royally screwed by ABC during it's final year, first ABC shortened it's season 4 order from 22 episodes to 13 despite solid ratings for the previous season, then the season was delayed until April. Then ItGotWorse, only 5 out of 13 episodes were aired, the next two episodes scheduled to air were both pre-empted by NBA games and ABC unceremoniously cancelled the show without giving any explanation whatsoever.

** ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' was first cancelled after fulfilling it's 65-episode order, [[UnCanceled but was brought back for another season by outraged fans.]]

** Ironically, one show that CW tried to screw repeatedly and never succeeded in was Smallville. Repeatedly firing and replacing writers, sometimes ''in between seasons'', moving the show from its very popular timeslot on Thursday to Friday for no reason, and cutting the budget of one season in half and giving it to VampireDiaries, it was obvious the network just wanted this show to die. But despite all the changes, Smallville managed to hang onto good ratings and the series ended on its own terms and not on CW's terms.

* Things are not looking so great for ''{{Series/Community}}''. Despite critical acclaim, a cultfollowing,and getting picked up for a fourth season it seems that NBC are trying to screw this one over.
** First the season is cut from the regular 24 episodes to 13.
** The series is then moved to the infamous FridayNightDeathslot
** To add insult to injury, creator and showrunner Dan Harmon got replaced without his knowlage.

* While ''Series/AmazingStories''[[hottip:*: or ''[[InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories]]'', as the BBC insisted on billing it]] was no classic, it still deserved better scheduling than it got from TheBBC, with episodes being flung onto the lineup at whim (and even going from [=BBC1=] to [=BBC2=] ''and back'') and turning up anywhere from early in the morning ("Family Dog") to mid-afternoon ("The Mission") to early in the evening ("You Gotta Believe Me") to late at night ("Mirror, Mirror"). If anyone managed to catch the entire run when it was screened terrestrially in Britain (SciFi, to their credit, gave it a coherent run), you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

* ''{{Spooks}}'' got this bad during its two runs on cable TV in the United States. It first landed on A&E at a time when the network was in the process of [[NetworkDecay decaying]] from its original image as a home for British imports into the reality hive it is today. After getting decent midweek slots for series one and two, the network decided to push series three to Saturdays at 10 to make room for reality in that midweek slot. Ratings suffered, but A&E was already locked into a contract for series four. So, they pulled repeats off the schedule during the long hiatus between series, and dumped series four on Fridays at 11, where the ratings dropped so hard, so fast that it was pulled after two weeks. That said, at least the network bothered to burn off the rest of series four (in Saturday afternoon marathon form).\\
\\
The show wouldn't get that chance at BBCAmerica, who restarted the show's run at series one. This time at least, the show would maintain a midweek slot for its entire run. Unfortunately, the third series found it in competition against AmericanIdol, which helped drain away a lot of viewers from the show (as Idol was prone to do to all shows at the time). The fourth series actually premiered against the gigantic Idol finale that year, and the numbers never recovered during the subsequent summer run, which led to BBCA pulling it after the fourth episode, never to return to cable TV in the US.\\
\\
Luckily, {{PBS}} would pull a NetworkToTheRescue by contracting most of its affiliates to carry the show. As of this writing, the first nine series have aired in their entirety, and this troper's PBS station is re-airing the earlier episodes while presumably waiting for series ten to become available in America. That plus the fact that, unlike the cable runs, the episodes are aired in their entirety (the cable runs cut them to fit into hour-long slots with commercials), has made for a far more satisfactory viewing experience.
* Series/TheFinder looked to have it pretty good, ''Bones'' creator Hart Hanson is hot stuff on Fox, given Bones is still on the air, it started in the post-Idol Thursday slot, what could go wrong. Fox (surprise surprise) rearranged the ep order, randomly put it on a month hiatus, then with little advertisement shifted it to [[FridayNightDeathSlot Fridays]] so Touch could get the Post-Idol slot. Finder supposedly was canceled for low ratings, but it did better than Touch overall before timeslot shift (comparing with Touch's aired eps). Since Touch is the new golden child with KS in it on Fox, it gets a second Season and Finder, well... ends with everyone needing to be found.