And Dr. Vanessa Calder visited Alphas.
I somewhat remember the first 3 paragraphs as being accurate (my memory from yesterday is fuzzy, forget anything before that), but I was following the story all along and don’t remember about SciFi trying to convince anyone about a season 5. Not that I’m a historian and the final authority on what happened, but I think upset fans make up stories to make the ‘enemy’ seem worse. The cancellation (and then how the producer petulantly allowed the finale to finish) were bad enough. No need to embellish.
One provides 12-14 weeks of new programming a year, the other provides about ~50 (with perhaps a best of show twice a year). One gets higher ratings, plus keeps Bonnie Hammer on top of the cable ratings (on USA) weekly. One costs NBC Universal nothing to produce, provides its own advertising, and is responsible for it’s own profitability after taking into account what NBC Universal pays for airing rights.
It isn’t a genre fit. I get that. Nor would it fit on A&E, The Weather Channel, or CNBC. NBC and WWE have a long-standing, mutually beneficial relationship, and it is only 2 friggin’ hours out of 168 possible programming hours per week. I really don’t understand why so many people get so fucking pouty about it. They are not adding more for the same reason they didn’t want to put a second wrestling show on USA - they don’t want to be perceived as a ‘wrestling network’. Obviously it isn’t working. Having 1.2% of your hours taken up by wrestling is an unforgivable taint. :rolleyes:
I didn’t. However, I may have misspoke or been unclear. They did not announce season 5 on TV, but did call one of the mid-season 4-episodes before a hiatus a “season finale”. then, when it came back, they called it a premiere.
I don’t have a cite, but I’m pretty sure this is how it happened.
They always did that and still do, for shows that have split seasons. They probably did it for season 3 also. ‘Finales’ and ‘Premiers’ tend to attract more viewers, so this gives them twice as many opportunities. Sometimes they now will say ‘mid-season finale’, but it’s the same idea.
P.S. - I didn’t mean you were embellishing, I meant ticked off fans in general inventing all kinds of stupid conspiracy theories.
I never watched that show, so I don’t how it ended and have no idea about the contract circumstances. But is it possible that what you describe as “petulant” was instead a way to try to continue the series by getting it picked up on another channel?
It was a very good idea and I had high hopes of it at first, but for some reason that I can’t put my finger on it never worked for me.
Perhaps it was too soapy or something, maybe the comedy didn’t hit the spot.
Maybe it was the story lines, I honestly don’t know.
Not unless another channel was willing to recreate all the sets from scratch (which is what SciFi had to do for the Farscape movie they did, so maybe that was the reason - get fans hopping mad to try to force SciFi’s hand). The sets were brought down immediately after the show finished shooting. Also, no one was picking up SciFi series. Usually the hope is that SciFi or another cable network will pick up a failing network series, but if SciFi can’t get enough viewers to make a space drama work, no one else is.
If you are interested in the discussion of the series finale, it is here. IMNSHO, worst series ending ever.
I’m glad you realize that.
+1
Oh, I wouldn’t call pro-wrestling a taint on the Syfy Channel. But I think you are very, very close!
You do realize that was a facetious sentence? 
I’m another one who thought the first couple seasons were awesome but lately find myself fairly uninterested in what happens. It’s nice to know they’ll get a proper ending, although I’m not sure I care that much.
Now, give me a great space show with the crew trapped off in space caught in the middle of some great alien conflict/mystery and then cancel it without a fair ending - that sucks.
I just started watching it myself, mainly from the ad for “Up In The Air”, when Sheriff Carter gets excited because a regular crime is reported (a bank robbery). Then he finds out what that means: the entire bank building has been stolen.
I then went out to the library to check out the DVDs of the series. Just need to find season 2, 3.0, and 4.0 to catch up.
They are all on Netflix streaming.
I’ve always opposed the notion of adding a like button here, but if we had one I would’ve clicked it for your post.
Anyway, it’s too bad Eureka’s been canceled, but it’s getting kinda long in the tooth now anyway, and I haven’t really liked the whole alt timeline thing (really wish they would’ve reset buttoned that away at the end of the half season when Baltar left the show). Losing Stark, and even Max Headroom, didn’t help much either.