ABC?  Have they screwed up?

I’ve been seeing many complaints about ABC’s decisions about what to cancel and what to keep.  Granted, I don’t think any of their comedies (except Modern Family) is good or realistic but that can wait for a later post.  What I do know is that I can understand why some of the long running dramas got their walking papers.  My question is why hasn’t others like Grey’s Anatomy.  Let me clue some of you in.

ABC decided to cancel Castle not due to ratings but due to expenses.  The show would have started their ninth year.  Stars salaries have to be negotiated and both Fillion and Katic are known actors with good reputations.  Yes, I know Fillion has a tendency to leak spoiler information but would we love him less for that?  I’m not sure when their last salary increase was negotiated but I’m sure it went up the chain more than we can image.

That being said, the problem I have with this cancellation is all the pre-press associated with it.  First we learned that Katic would not be returning. Then we learned that the company was in negotiation to get Fillion to return.  It looked like a done deal but wait.  It’s only for 13 episodes. Once that was acknowledged, they cancelled the show.  This looks like poor sportsmanship on ABC’s part.  They didn’t get what they wanted so they walked.

Nashville, for me, is a little more tricky to figure out.  They may not have had the numbers but they had the fans as any fan gathering for the show would prove.  They had Nashville’s approval.  Why cancel a show that has survived the network for only four years and cut it due to ratings.

My thoughts are that it is due to one thing, and one thing only.  The expenses to get permissions to pay for the music was something the network/company no longer wanted to negotiate. Plus with additional “guest stars,” you have to add on the salary costs.

We will never really know why the shows got cancelled but the good news is that they live on.  We can buy the DVDs and watch them.  Castle actually is running nightly on TNN or TNT (can’t remember which).

And they wonder why viewers are turning away from the big four?