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Which shows will fall to the axe in America?

Which shows will fall to the axe in America?

CSI MiamiWe take a look at a few dramas in America which could fall to the axe this year – and if our brief round-up of in-danger shows are anywhere near accurate it seems as though the age of the franchise could be over.

There has been a noticeable ‘trend’ over the past decade, may even further back, to create spin-offs from popular dramas/sci fi’s et al and even create entire franchises. This is very true of America where, it seems, every successful show is prepped for a spin-off though not all make it very far. The proposed spin-off from Heroes which canned due to the writers strike while the Gossip Girl prequel was also scrapped. However, there has been some very successful spin-offs/franchises over the past ten years or so but are they now in danger?

 

In our round-up of shows in America that are facing the real possibility of cancellation several are the latest entry in that particular franchise. But first let’s start with the shows that stand on there own and don’t belong to any larger ‘universe’.

 

FringeThe most obvious genre show under threat this season is Fringe, the Fox drama which stars Joshua Jackson, Anna Trov and John Noble. There was rumblings that this could be the last season for Fringe very early on and the low ratings only seem to confirm this view point. Now when we speculated a few weeks ago that Fringe could very well be cancelled we had a very angry fans rant at us. Then Fox more or less confirmed our view by announcing it was moving Fringe to Friday evenings – where all good but low rated shows die a death. Dollhouse, the last big casualty of the Friday slot immediately springs to mind. So in all honesty Fringe would need a miracle to save it now but stranger things have happened.

 

ChuckNBC’s Chuck has faced cancellation before but has somehow survived – thanks to its very loyal fans. Chuck stars Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski and its current series has managed to attract some pretty awsome guest-stars; Linda Hamilton, Eric Roberts and Timothy Dalton to name some. Chuck has never been a huge ratings puller for NBC which is why its renewal has always been a close thing but given that NBC has ordered 24 episodes for its current series – surely a sign of confidence – it’s future doesn’t look too bleak. But then NBC doesn’t always follow logic – giving Heroes a fourth season for example.

 

Robert CaryleStargate Universe is the third television series in the franchise and stars Robert Carlyle, Louis Ferreira and Brian J Smith. When it first launched on Syfy it rated quite well and some episodes even performed better than Dollhouse on Fox. Oh how times change though and now Stargate Universe is, to be blunt, struggling with ratings. Ratings fell below the 1 million mark and while they have since recovered they aren’t excatly spectacular pushing around 1.1 million viewers. That’s down considerably on the first season which saw some episodes pulling in over 2 million viewers. The reason for the poor ratings? If you listen to some disgruntled Stargate Atlantis fans who want there favourite show back. So will Syfy cancel Stargate Universe? There’s a real possibility it will especially as it axed Caprica which also rated badly and has already re-commissioned Warehouse 13 and Eureka both of which perform vastly better than Universe.

 

It hasn’t been a good year for the Law and Order franchise in America – which is in contrast to the UK where our Law & Order has just been re-commissioned for a further 13 episodes. In America though parent Law and Order: Los Angelesshow Law & Order was cancelled by NBC even though it was expected to be re-commissioned for a 21st and final season. It’s also been revealed that Law & Order: Criminal Intent will only return for one more season. Now the latest entry in the franchise, Law & Order: Los Angeles (the first Law & Order in America to be set outside New York) could also fall. The spin-off stars Skeet Ulrich and Corey Stoll but ratings are not good. It all started relatively well with 10.6 million viewers for the pilot but since then ratings have dropped to under 7 million viewers. Now Law & Order: Los Angeles has only aired a handful of episodes so things could change – if they don’t well we can’t see NBC giving the show a second season. That would mean that only spin-off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit would be the only L&O show re-ordered in America.

 

Another powerful franchise in America is CBS’s CSI which has now runs to three shows; CSI, CSI New York and CSI Miami. So surely the CSI franchise couldn’t be in any danger? Well according to some in CSI: New YorkAmerica, yes. And it’s not just one CSI show in danger but two. While parent show CSI continues to attract strong figures of 14 million viewers its spin-offs are attracting between 9 and 10 million viewers per episode – that’s about 4 million viewers less. For CSI Miami it’s average figure for this season is down several million viewers as is CSI: New York. But will CBS cancel either or both of them? At this stage we’d say that was uncertain leaning towards unlikely – but never say never!

 

Patricia ArquetteAmongst the casualties of the season so far; The CW drama Life Unexpected which hasn’t been officially cancelled but is as good as dead. Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica which has officially been given the chop and will be replaced with a different BSG spin-off. CBS’s supernatural series Medium, which stars Patricia Arquette, has had its episode order cut to 13 episodes and everyone involved with it says it’s been cancelled.

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