Claws
Claws is a show that is more than lucky to be able to end its run with a mutual agreement between its creative team and studio executives. TNT’s Claws will be ending its story after its fourth season. Throughout its three seasons, Claws managed to keep its ratings relatively and consistently high, and its audience hooked since the beginning..
Through the show’s excellent storytelling and well-executed comedic moments, Claws managed to address many real-life issues and topics in a way that is encouraging and uplifting for the audience. And with the show’s creators believing that its story is more than ready for its conclusion, the cast, crew, and the executives behind Claws are making the most out of their investment money to ensure that their fans will find the show’s finale extremely satisfying.
Cops
Another show that is of the same mold as Live PD, the CBS reality TV series Cops had been removed from the network’s circulation in light of recent events. Unfortunately, there are no plans of renewing it soon. Throughout its 30-year run, the show faced more than its fair share of scrutiny from viewers, some of whom claim that it’s a misrepresentation of how the criminal justice system works.
Although a lot of viewers have criticized the show through the years, those criticisms have some merit. For what it’s worth, Cops also deserves credit for showing viewers the gritty nature of a policeman’s work and the dangers that they encounter during their everyday lives. Though in the end, the show’s cancelation was overall the best decision the network can do to pay their respects to recent news.
Homeland
One of Showtime’s top-rated series, Homeland, has finally concluded its story after eight-seasons. This was among the few projects on TV where the network gave producers full creative liberty. Homeland’s showrunner, Alex Gansa, believed that ending the show after the eighth season was great, especially since the show had gone for almost a decade already.
With Gansa’s thoughts of ending the show, speculation rose about studio executives continuing Homeland, even if it meant that it would be without its original showrunner. However, due to the show’s production costs becoming increasingly expensive after each season, Showtime executives have agreed that once Gansa has finished his vision of the story, that’s it. This way, the show can conclude its story as originally intended. Happily, the producers have enough investment money to make it happen.
Tommy
Sometimes, a few low-rated shows get the opportunity to continue their run because the production cost needed for their follow-up season is still affordable for the network. This way, the show can improve, and, hopefully, bring more viewers to the network. Sadly, this wasn’t the case for CBS’s police drama Tommy.
Throughout its first-reason run, Tommy collected its fair share of fans, but, in the end, its ratings were too low for the show’s good. Though its story showed much potential for a follow-up season, the show’s production costs were too high. It was decided that making further investments in the show was a risky decision for the network. But with Tommy’s fans voicing out their thoughts on social media for the show’s renewal, one can hope that the story still has a shot at continuing.
Dare Me
Who would have known that even cheerleading can have a dark story hiding behind cheerleaders’ pom-poms? Well, that’s what the USA network and Netflix’s jointly-produced drama, Dare Me, tackled as its premise.
Unfortunately, a few months after the series’ finished its first season, Dare Me was canceled. However, the series’ fans can still be hopeful since the show still has a chance of continuing its story at another outlets – one possible scenario is that it will become a new Netflix original series entirely. After all, since the show’s story tackles the harsh realities of competitive cheerleading, Dare Me possesses the immense potential to spread awareness about real-life struggles that can resonate with its audience. With the series’ gas tank barely even used, Dare Me has many stories, waiting to be told.
The Purge
In a twisted turn of events, the horror-drama series, The Purge, was purged out of USA network’s circulation. After the show’s two-season run, network executives decided it’s time to move on from the series that takes place in the same universe as The Purge films. For the producers, it was a black hole as far as money was concerned.
Although the show gained a huge fan base because of the success of The Purge films’, most of them didn’t stay for long — and this became apparent when its ratings kept dwindling until the second season’s finale. And, since the USA network decided to dedicate more of their investment money to unscripted live shows, The Purge became an easy choice for them to remove from their circulation, among their other scripted shows.
Spinning Out
Most of the time, no matter how great a show or film is, the chance of getting another installment boils down to its popularity and cost. Another Netflix series, Spinning Out, had ended its run on the streaming service only after one season. The show started out fine but fizzled out as the season progressed.
A story about a figure skater trying to regain her footing after getting an injury, Spinning Out’s story, sadly, spun out of control as it got closer to its season finale. Although the series garnered a fan base that was eager for its story to continue with a new season, Spinning Out couldn’t attract a broad audience to the streaming service, resulting in Netflix no longer making further investments for a follow-up installment.
Briarpatch
This was a show that received a positive response from its viewers. Briarpatch was canceled after only its first season since it didn’t attract a wide audience for the USA network. And to make things sadder, the show’s cast and crew have stated that they were more than willing to return for a follow-up season.
Although the show will no longer be continuing its run on the network, Briarpatch showrunner Andy Greenwald mentioned through social media that the series still has the potential to resume its story as long as fans show a high degree of support for it. In the meantime, while the show’s continuation is still uncertain, fans can also support Greenwald’s future projects so that they don’t end prematurely as his other good shows have in recent years.
Treadstone
It looks like most spin-off series based on popular films don’t have it easy. Another show that’s a spin-off to a movie series, USA’s Treadstone, won’t continue its story along with The Purge.
Along with the USA network shifting their investment money toward live, unscripted programs, Treadstone faced the receiving end of the proverbial ax due to its overall mixed reviews and low viewer count. With the Jason Bourne spin-off, Treadstone, no longer continuing its run, fans of the series will be left hanging after the first season’s finale, which was meant to be a set-up for the events in the second season. Good or bad, it will always be a sad sight to see shows with immense potential to improve be canceled too soon.