Sunday, June 18, 2006

Poll Results - Which show's renewal surprised you the most?

Still trying to clear up some of the leftovers and the poll results was the next thing on my list. The last poll I ran was on renewed shows, and which was the most surprising. There are reasons why I chose the shows I did and I'll get to that. There were 12 voters which is down from recent polls.

Tied for sixth with no votes are Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home, American Dad and Veronica Mars. There were a number of rumours that Close To Home might be cancelled if there were a stronger replacement available. American Dad was considered to be the worst of the Fox Sunday animation block. I personally disliked Ghost Whisperer and was expecting its cancellation. As for Veronica Mars, this show suffered badly in the ratings in its second season and it wasn't certain that the show would be renewed until it was heard that the show's star, Kristen Bell, had flown to New York for the CW upfronts.

In a tie for fourth place with one vote (8%) were What About Brian and The Loop. Both were Spring replacement series with The Loop being a workplace comedy and What About Brian a "relationship drama" in the style of Ed. What About Brian didn't have strong ratings but received some critical acclaim and probably benefitted from ABC's need to build a lineup on Monday nights. The Loop is a big puzzle - its ratings were weak and the critics seemed to hate it. On the other hand it was considerably stronger most of the comedies (or alleged comedies) that Fox put forward this past season.

Tied for second place with two votes each (16%) are Fox's The War at Home and The CW's One Tree Hill. One Tree Hill was probably the weakest of The WB's lineup of "teen angst" shows and was expected to be dumped either for a show like Everwood or for a new show like Aquaman when UPN and The WB merged. As for The War at Home it was universally regarded as the single worst show of the 2005-06 season from any broadcast network. As my buddy Ivan Shreve put it "The War at Home. Is there really any other clear winner?"

Well actually there was: 7th Heaven. It picked up a whopping six votes for 50% of the total. The show has been on for ten years, making it one of the longest lasting shows still on TV and it had actually been officially cancelled...by The WB. The WB couldn't financially afford to keep it on the air for another year despite the fact (which continually amazes some people) that it was the highest rated show on either The WB or UPN. The show even had an official series finale. However the merged networks, now styled as The CW was able to afford the show and just as importantly probably couldn't afford not to have the show on the schedule, at least for the network's first year. Whether the show will be on for a twelfth season is an entirely different question, but so long as no other show on the CW draws such strong ratings it may be the one show that the network can't afford to lose.

I'll probably have another poll up in the next day or so although I'm really not sure what it'll be. I'd like to continue with my TV Theme topic but with only two weeks before the Emmy nominations come out I don't have time to handle the topic the way I'd like. I could do a poll on what shows should be nominated, but again I'm not entirely comfortable with that idea unless I can do it in a unique manner. I'll work something out though.

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