Could you please explain to the uninitiated WHY The Tomorrow People should not have been cancelled when you have some spare time?
I can prattle on about the show all day and why it deserved to be renewed, but I feel it is important to acknowledge why it was cancelled. Because I’ve given my reasons for it’s renewal so many times, I’m rather exhausted of it. Maybe I’ll do a bullet point list at the end.
While the Tomorrow People had it’s faults, it still managed to pull an average viewership rating of .53, while the show it was cancelled in favor for, Beauty and the Beast had only managed a .29 and had been pulled mid season to finish out in the summer.
Here is a brief list of other shows that were renewed with their average ratings.
Beauty And The Beast: .29Hart Of Dixie: .35 Whose Line Is It Anyways: .53Reign: .58The 100: .6The Originals: .9Arrow: .91Supernatural: .99The Vampire Diaries: 1.01
Here is an even briefer list of shows that were cancelled or ended with their average ratings:
Nikita: .23 (ended)Star-Crossed: .32Carrie Diaries: .32The Tomorrow People: .53
This outside reason is the primary reason why it should have never been cancelled. Now, for the people not familiar with how ratings are supposed to work: If you keep the show’s ratings up, it will be renewed. If it’s close to syndication, it will be renewed unless it bombs out.
Unfortunately, the CEO of the CW, Mark Pedowitz gave multiple different reasoning why TTP was cancelled. Here is the one he seems to stick by the most:
Pedowitz explained that Beauty and the Beast performed better in terms of international sales and social engagement. “We’ve always said we’re a very different style of broadcast network,” he said. “We have situations where shows like Beauty have created upside potential … it’s a fan favorite. It has a great international [interest]. Primarily, Tomorrow People was a great show – [it] just didn’t have the same level of social engagement or digital side that Beauty and the Beast gets.” [x]
Let me explain the second one. ‘Social Engagement’ is absolute horse shit. Our social engagement was through the roof, we were trending every week on twitter and our fandom was close knit and always talking and interacting with our cast and crew. The ‘social engagement’ given by BATB fans was death threats to an article that dare criticize the fandom and ironically points out every single thing it did to be called ‘social engagement’. ‘International sales’ is also major horse shit, because by the time the show was cancelled, it was on, I believe, the 3rd episode in Austrailia and hadn’t even had the chance to play out in the international screens yet. Beauty And The Beast had since 2012 to spread internationally, and it’s ratings were still absolutely awful across the boards.
This ‘upside potential’ he claims is essentially this: You walk into Game Stop and ask the clerk for 6 Xbox controllers. You have the money. You can buy them. The clerk however says “No, I will only sell 1 to you, because I could maybe have other interested customers today or tomorrow.” He believes that the show will only get better ratings, even though most of the international viewers I know of have been pirating/streaming the show from outside sources and therefore do not contribute to the ratings at all.
I’m going to come out and say what really happened: Some backass studio politics and the CEO having a hard on for what’s her face in BATB. That’s why TTP was cancelled.
Reasons it should have been renewed:
Openly feminist men (presents John Young with a flourish)
Ambiguity in the villains that kept you guessing
Limits on those super powers (prime barrier)
Well choreographed fight scenes
Narrative of good versus evil, not only fighting against outside forces like Ultra, but within themselves (Killian, The Rapist, Natalie), and fighting against one’s own self (John w/ Anax, Stephen w/ Anax, Cara with her demons)
Narrative of love of family and love of species: Who do you choose when it comes down to the wire, or are they the same?
The cast had amazing chemistry on and off set. All of them. You could basically ship everyone with everyone else. It’s great.
The choice of dialogue and the stories they wished to convey.
The guest actors (Simon Merrels- from Spartacus, James Landry Herbert- In Agent Carter, Jason Dohring- in Veronica Mars, Dan Stevens [really a series regular]- In Beauty and the Beast (film) with Emma Watson, Elizabeth Hurley- from Bedazzled and Austin Powers, Levin Rambin- from the Hunger Games, Meta Golding- From Catching Fire, Alexa Pena Vega- from Spy Kids and Machete Kills, etc etc.)
The narrative on life and death and spirituality (if you squint- Do all TPs see Limbo before death, just do not have the means to access it like Roger and Stephen?)
The initial love triangle gets assassinated and pushed to the side by everyone involved because there is definitely more important stuff going on that worrying about who is sleeping with who and who is in love with who–which I’m pretty sure would have led to a full on polyamorous relationship in season 2–
The f$%#ing cliffhanger of Season 1. I want to pretend it didn’t happen, but I can’t. FML.
The fans who are still fighting for it to come back. We haven’t given up. We accept that the CW has cancelled it, but we will never lose hope
blakekathryn
kianamaiart
titsay
germansingergirl
pixelskylines
turnnoffyourmind
prguitarman
stormborns
