ABC Provides an Update on “Cancelled” Day Break, The Nine and Six Degrees

Zap2It reported that the remaining Day Break episodes will be up at ABC.Com by end of February to bring that storyline to conclusion. The Nine and Six Degrees will supposedly return on the air before the end of the year. Six Degrees is still expected to be retooled but neither show will get more than 13 episodes.  For fans of The Nine this means don’t expect resolution on what happened in the bank since no new episodes will be shot.

This may give a sense of hope to fans of these shows so that they can continue to sign petitions and deny in comments on blogs like mine that the shows have been cancelled.  I appreciate the passion they have for their shows but for my 2 cents when both Six Degrees and The Nine do air it will likely be Saturday night and the chances of either getting renewed for next season are less than zero.

Best of TV 2006 – Best Show Cancelled Before its Time

This category is to honour shows that the networks didn’t give a fair shake to find an audience and was cancelled in advance of completing a full season.

The nominees are:

• Day Break
• Kidnapped
• The Nine
• Smith
• Vanished

The season started so promising with all sorts of new serialized dramas, a welcome change from the glut of procedurals, reality shows and game shows that have invaded the airways.  Now here we are part way through the new season and there have been lots of casualties.

I only watched the first few episodes of Day Break but I liked the premise, I liked Taye Diggs and even more important I liked that the show was finite – 13 episodes and it was going to be over.  The perfect way to fill in the time until Lost returns.  Still ABC couldn’t even commit to running the show for that time frame and ABC has no plans to air the remaining episodes.   It will air much better on DVD.

Kidnapped was also a great show with a finite premise.  I give credit to NBC for committing to finishing the show even after it was cancelled to provide its audience with closure.  After being exiled from Wednesday to Saturday night the show was taken off the air.  The remaining episodes are airing on NBC.com.

The Nine was selected by many critics as the best show of the year.  I liked the concept of a bank robbery which bound hostages together after the crisis was over and a mystery as to what really happened in the bank.  The show was supported by a great cast of TV actors including Scott Wolf, Chi McBride and Tim Daly.  It was also given the perfect timeslot after Lost.  The problem I had was in the execution of the premise which was frankly kind of boring.  Still, I would have liked to see how the show resolved itself.

Smith was a great show on the wrong network.  CBS doesn’t have patience for non-procedurals (the relatively mediocre Jericho being the exception) and this show was as far as possible from the standard fare that fits the CBS demographic.  With name actors, amoral characters and slick filming this show had great potential.  Unfortunately it got pulled after 3 episodes.  CBS put the unaired episodes on its web site and published the synopsis of the next dozen or so episodes but seeing what could have been only made the disappointment worse.

Vanished had some of the worst dialogue on TV, and acting by its lead that could at best be called wooden.  Still there was something that made me watch this conspiracy show week after week.  Just as they killed off the main character and replaced him with Eddie Cibrian who I like, the show got pulled.  The remaining episodes are airing on MySpace.

The winner is:  Kidnapped (NBC).

It’s Official: Day Break is Cancelled

In an earlier posting I wrote that it looked like Day Break was going to be cancelled and now it’s official.  ABC announced on Friday that Day Break was cancelled and that they had no plans to air the remaining episodes.

It’s unfortunate because I liked the premise and even more important liked that the show was finite and that we would see an ending for the show.  I’m sure the DVD will be released later next year and will try and catch it then.

Has ABC Cancelled Day Break?

ABC recently announced that when Lost returns February 7th it will air at 10:00. In the same announcement ABC said that its new comedies The Knights of Prosperity and In Case of Emergency would be premiering January 3rd at 9:00 and 9:30 respectively. That’s the time slot when Day Break currently airs and if you do the math it’s about 4 weeks and 4 episodes before its scheduled to end.

Personally, I’m still a few weeks behind but I hear good things about the show and in an era of serial shows that run without an end in sight it’s good to support serialized shows that have a clear beginning, middle and end.

ABC hasn’t made an official statement that the show has been cancelled but all signs are pointing to yes.  Hopefully the network can find at least some time to air the remaining episodes and give viewers closure.