Acclaimed Flop: Most watched drama in Ireland, the most successful home-grown show in god-knows-how-long, massive DVD sales, sold to international TV stations, all anyone talks about on chat shows the day after it airs and a massive cultural touchstone ... that costs the taxpayer a fortune. The show is not profitable. Series 3 was still in the red by the time series 4 started airing. RTÉ is playing a very risky game of optics in continuing to produce this show. It's widely thought that the reason Raw was cancelled was to put more money into Love/Hate.
What Could Have Been: Robbie Walsh pushed for Jimmy Byrne not to be killed off so suddenly after being built up as such a threat to Darren - feeling more could be done with him. The show runners however were convinced that no one would watch and they weren't likely to get a second season.