Sci-Fi Storm

The CW may have canceled Star-Crossed with all the humans unconscious leaving the survival of humanity in doubt, but fear not – you can find out what was planned for the not-happening Season 2, thanks to an interview by Zap2It with series creator Meredith Averill. So there is some help to closure for the show – most simply are never heard from again with plans unknown, leaving viewers wondering.

Of course, if you were a fan of that show, or any other show canceled before a planned ending, and hope beyond hope that another network would pick it up…it’s very, VERY hard for that to happen. First, remember – it’s been canceled by a network already. That means that the viewership (which the advertisers pay for, which in turn pays for the show) wasn’t sufficient to support the cost of the show. It would be difficult to argue that it would somehow do better on another network, or somehow become cheaper to produce. Now it could be that it was doing OK but canceled because the network wanted the room on the schedule for something that could do better for it – in that case, another network might consider picking it up if it at least would do better than its own programming and don’t have anything in the pipeline as good. But it’s unlikely.

Now, add to that, what about the cast and crew? The show’s been canceled, are they expected to sit around and wait in the hopes of it getting picked up by another network? They aren’t getting paid any more, and as they say, people gotta eat. This includes not only the actors, but the writers, the cameramen, the electrical workers, etc. – all the people who work on the show every day. The show was their full time jobs, essentially, and they’ve been given pink slips. And they’ve often had a bit of notice that it could be coming if the show was on the bubble of being renewed. They’ve been looking for other jobs already.

Star-Crossed writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe actually tweeted an explanation on his timeline. As I can’t link to the specific start of it and it spanned a number of tweets, I’ll reprint them here (I hope he doesn’t mind):

Okay so, cancellations. First remember everyone working on a show is doing it for a living. They have kids, mortgages, etc. So… If a show is on the bubble, everyone working on it goes looking for work once they’re wrapped (finished with work). If they don’t have a long term contract, they get other jobs. That’s all the hardworking camera crew, sound folks editors etc. Gone. If they do have longterm contracts, they get conditional deals. Backup jobs. That’s writers and actors especially. So for example, I went onto #Elementary with the understanding that if #StarCrossed came back, I’d leave to go back to SC.

BUT when a show gets canned, those 2nd position deals become 1st. So now my #Elementary deal now comes 1st. I’m gone no matter what. But not just me. Actors, show creators, directors, etc now have contracts with other shows. They are gone. Also, the sets are recycled. That would cost 100s of thousands to remake. Studio and office space are let go. No more home.

So the #Enlisted actors all did pilots, if those got picked up, they’re gone. When #DresdenFiles got cancelled, Paul & Terry got other gigs. So if Keifer Sutherland’s show Touch were still being made, no 24 mini. We couldn’t get Paul for Dresden again cause of #Arrow. So that’s the deal. It’s not impossible, but it’s really hard. Not from malevolence. But because folks gotta eat.

So there you have it. While everyone hopes that a show could be revived, there are many, many factors against it. And if it did manage to come back, it very likely wouldn’t be quite the same – risking loss of viewers who liked it the way it was. And that’s a risk many networks aren’t willing to take.

The CW has been cleaning up it’s schedule today for the next season to make room for the pilot pickups, and some genre shows have felt the axe. The Tomorrow People and Star-Crossed were not renewed, with the former not finding a foothold with the CW’s primary demographics, and the latter’s mid-season start possibly falling victim to the weak lead-in.

On the other side, The 100, which looks to be a surprise hit, gained renewal along with the rebooted Beauty and the Beast, but the number of episodes has not been decided – some believe they may get less than the full 22 episodes. The 100 will also say goodbye to two of the co-runners of the show, Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, who were there to help shepherd executive producer and creator Jason Rothenberg for it’s freshman run, but he will go solo going forward.