# Jake 2.0 Cancelled **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2004, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803 "2004-01-16T18:02:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/1 "2004-01-16T18:02:48Z")
> [@](#): > > The freshman drama Jake 2.0, which followed up Star Trek: Enterprise on Wednesday night, has been cancelled. > > Variety reported today that production had been halted on the show. Reruns of America’s Next Top Model, which airs on Tuesdays at 9pm Eastern time, will be taking the place of Jake 2.0 at 9pm on Wednesdays. > > Jake 2.0 struggled in the ratings. The show debuted with a 4.2 rating/6 share, lower than last season’s The Twilight Zone, which opened with a 4.6/7. The last airing of Jake 2.0, a rerun on January 7th, attracted only 1.52 million viewers and landed in last place for the week of January 5th at #119. The last first run episode of Jake 2.0 aired on December 17th and scored a 2.4/4 to come in 5th place in the hour, ahead of a rerun of the WB’s Angel. > > America’s Next Top Model debuted to high numbers for UPN on Tuesday night. The second season of the reality show drew in 4.9 million viewers, the highest ratings in that timeslot for the net since 1995. God. I hate UPN. As the redheaded stepchild of the Networks, I can’t really understand why they would cancel _Jake 2.0_ or any show that even gets one viewer. I mean, if it wasn’t for Trek and WWE, would the POS station even exist? I bet they keep making their high quality sitcoms like _The Mullets_, _Eve_, and _Rock Me Baby_ though… ugh. Also, before I forget, I also hate America for watching bullshit like _America’s Next Top Model_. God, I hate this whole reality TV fad. Maybe if half our programming wasn’t eaten by by crap like this and all the damned home redecorating shows, we could actually get some halfway decent shows on the air. One less reason for me to watch TV. ---
**Author:** ![Reverse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@Reverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reverse)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/2 "2004-01-16T18:09:40Z")
What kind of show was it? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/3 "2004-01-16T18:51:00Z")
A present day Million Dollar Man, basically. Jake Foley, the lead, was an NSA computer tech that was infected with nanites which enhanced all his attributes and even allowed him to interface with technology. Instead of using him as a lab rat, the organization decided to train him as an agent and sent him on a number of missions. It’s only had about fifteen episodes but those fifteen are tons better than a lot of the dreck on TV. It showed nice characterization, especially for Jake, who matured from a naive idealist to a more mature and perceptive person. ---
**Author:** ![Reverse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@Reverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reverse)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/4 "2004-01-16T18:56:23Z")
Sounds incredibly stupid and cliche-ridden. Like _John Doe_. Good thing these shows get cut short so they won’t be taking up the space from better shows. But hey, you liked it, so sorry for your loss. Console yourself by watching a bunch of supermodel wannabes. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/5 "2004-01-16T19:07:32Z")
The premise of the show is by no means unique… the Greeks had myths about humans endowed with god like abilities three thousand years before this or The Six Million Dollar Man were ever concieved, but the telling of the story is what is important to me, not how cutting edge its selling point is. After fifty years of television and thirty thousand years of human oral tradition, there is nothing left that isn’t cliched in some manner. Enjoyment, for me, is found in the details, and that is something that you, as someone who has not seen the show but sees fit to sneer down your nose at its “cliched stupidity”, wouldn’t know considering your ignorance of the program. Why exactly did you reply to this thread anyway? The entirety of your first post was nothing more than a question showing you had no idea as to what the OP was referring to and your second was nothing more than a jerkish reply more fitting to the Pit than to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Reverse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@Reverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reverse)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/6 "2004-01-16T19:12:30Z")
I was just curious about what kind of a show it is. Why, should I be a fanfic writing fan of the show in order to be qualified to respond to this thread? ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/7 "2004-01-16T19:52:27Z")
Jake 2.0 was nopt a 'great" show, but I thought it was “good”. Better than anything else on UPN except maybe Enterprise. Likeable characters and execution were the good points of the show, not ness the premise. I hope Keegan Connor Tracy (?), who played the cute science geekette finds a job somewhere else. (The Jake/Diane dynamic was another good aspect of this show) Brian ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/8 "2004-01-16T20:43:32Z")
> [@Reverse](#): > > Sounds incredibly stupid and cliche-ridden. Like _John Doe_. > > Good thing these shows get cut short so they won’t be taking up the space from better shows. > > But hey, you liked it, so sorry for your loss. Console yourself by watching a bunch of supermodel wannabes. But since you never watched the show, I guess you’d have to agree you have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/9 "2004-01-16T20:47:51Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I bet they keep making their high quality sitcoms like _The Mullets_, _Eve_, and _Rock Me Baby_ though… ugh. Now, why can’t **Eve** have her own sitcom? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/10 "2004-01-16T22:30:00Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I can’t really understand why they would cancel _Jake 2.0_ or any show that even gets one viewer. Keep reminding yourself that TV is a coldhearted profit-oriented business just like every other. It’s not about raw viewership. _America’s Top Model_ will probably draw roughly the same number of viewers as _Jake 2.0_ (though from a different demographic, as _Jake_ was competing with _Angel_ for many of the same eyeballs). However, _ATM_ (hmmm) is much, much cheaper to produce. _Jake_ is shot on film with actors and crewmembers whose salaries are dictated by unions; it uses location shooting, stunts, and visual effects. _ATM_ is shot on video largely within a twenty block radius of the production facility in New York, and it uses “reality contestants” it doesn’t have to pay nearly as much. I’m pulling these numbers out of my ass, but knowing what I know about the business, I’d estimate an hourlong episode of _ATM_ has a production pricetag around a quarter of what it costs to make an hour of _Jake._ Even if it draws half the viewership of _Jake_, which I think is doubtful, the profit margin on _ATM_ will be a lot higher. Given all of that, if I were a television executive, I’d cancel _Jake_ too. And note that I’m coming from the perspective of someone who liked the show. Didn’t think it was fabulous, but it was perfectly adequate for what it was, with a few clever and funny twists here and there, and a nice aesthetic. I wouldn’t have scheduled it opposite _Angel_, even with the _Enterprise_ lead-in, but if it wasn’t working, hey, gone. Give it a shot, move it around, try to help, but business is business. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/11 "2004-01-17T00:19:23Z")
If those butt dumplings at UPN hadn’t put it right up against Angel, it might’ve had a shot. Not that Angel is a perennial ratings champ, but I think both of these shows would attract a similar personality, and Angel’s kind of got the advantage if you make people pick. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/12 "2004-01-17T00:23:08Z")
Good points. I’m just really annoyed that a show like \*Jake \*, which might take time to find its fanbase, gets cancelled while they produce so much other irredeemable garbage that will never grow beyond what they are currently. Whatever happened to allowing a show to grow before deciding if it was a failure or not? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/13 "2004-01-17T00:25:08Z")
That post was in reply to **Cervaise** , not **Snooooopy**. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/14 "2004-01-17T03:47:05Z")
AAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!! Aes: I think you should call those maroons at UPN and tell them a thing or two. The number is 310 575 7000. And while you’re at it, ask the programming managers why they haven’t run a promo on Wednesday nights for the upcoming new eps of ENT. I’m calling for sure. I am taping Joan for you tonight, at least. I think I had read your postings in the thread last week and was on too late at night to comprehend that you had not seen the ep. Glad you are getting the tape from someone anyhow. Jakelessly, viva ☹ ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/15 "2004-01-17T05:56:31Z")
:eek: 😕 ☹ … ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/16 "2004-01-17T06:41:28Z")
What’s up, **NCB**? You are confused by UPN? By the TV show? By somebody’s comments? Hm? Wow, have I got a birthday card for you. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/17 "2004-01-17T09:58:47Z")
Damnit! There goes a show my family enjoyed watching together. It was good to see actual geeks on TV. And I mean actual geeks. The characterization was much better on that show than on most shows these days. The awkwardness. The uncertainty and pregnant pauses with baffled looks on your face. The characters were geeks and it showed. In their one particular field of expertise they were gods. Take them out of it and throw a interpersonal relationship at them and watch them do the same thing that thousands of real life human beings would do. Stand there and look stupid. That’s fantastic! Where else on TV will you see that? You could almost see the hamsters in their little wheels in the characters heads freeze like deer in headlights. A lot of the tech and stuff was crap and that normally bugs the hell out of me, but I was completely willing to forgive it because the characters were so believeable. Reluctant heroes, anti-heroes. Trying to figure out where they belong, most of them far too honest and guileless for their own good. Even when their guile and cold-blooded training leads them to a certain conclusion their guts still get them in trouble. Then they were thrust into situations none of them bargained for. A research assistant has to take over the Nanite program and if she screws up, a guy dies. Not just any guy, but a friend. A guy finally gets his dream of being an agent, but it isn’t at all like what he thought it would be and the stakes are much higher than he bargained for. Kyle as a mentor was fantastic. That wasn’t a sci-fi show, it was a drama with a sci-fi backdrop. One of the better shows UPN has put out in a long time. That having been said, the show was going downhill. The whole “rift in the NSA” thing where Jake and his group were semi-rogue against the wishes of the higher-ups. The whole political power-struggle thing sucked. It just reminded me of the later days of the A-Team where the A-Team became unwilling puppets of some general who would use them as his own personal special ops team. They just seemed to try too hard to create conflict in the series at that point. Let the good guys be good and the bad guys be bad and then introduce us enough to the characters so we care about who wins and who loses. Now we’ll have to find something else to watch after Enterprise. Oh well, odds are we’ll just tape Smallville while we’re watching Enterprise and then watch Smallville after Enterprise. Certainly won’t watch that Top Model crap. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/18 "2004-01-17T10:22:13Z")
If it makes you feel better about the universe - and it certainly helps me - The Mullets was also cancelled. ---
**Author:** ![MinniePurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@MinniePurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinniePurl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/19 "2004-01-17T10:30:45Z")
I thought the show was kinda dumb, but Mr. Purl loved it. That said, however, I can’t beleive they cancelled it to show total DRECK like America’s Top Model. Christ, will the onslaught of crap-ass reality shows never END? I’m thankful for my TiFaux (Snapstream), I can watch the only things on TV that are any good-- Monk, West Wing reruns, and Good Eats. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803/20 "2004-01-17T15:56:50Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > :eek: > > 😕 > > ☹ > … > > > [@vivalostwages](#): > > > > What’s up, **NCB**? You are confused by UPN? By the TV show? By somebody’s comments? > > > > Hm? :eek: - Cancelled?! NOOOOOOOoooooo…! 😕 - But, but… it was a _good_ show… UPN is run by FOX now? ☹ - I am sad. Gud enuf 'splainin? ;j [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jake-2-0-cancelled/224803.md?page=2)