And yeah, while most of the reviews for "Wonderfalls" were really positive, the Hollywood Reporter and Variety both panned it.

How funny. The targets for the VM and FF SOS campaigns, respectively.

Allyson and Kristen should SO make a web-show thing. I'd do all the techie bits.

West Wing is aired on Channel 4 and E4 here, and does quite well. We have, off the top of my head, currently: Scrubs (on about 8 times a week now), Friends (on about 8 times a week STILL), Six Feet Under, Without A Trace, all the CSIs, Wonderfalls, Firefly, Dead Like Me, 24, X-Files, Huff, Law and Order and House.

Original drama wise, I'm currently watching "Sugar Rush", a UK thing about a 15 year old girl's life. It airs at 11pm, and there's no way it'd air in the US I suspect (she's Bi, does drugs, and is pretty much an a-typical UK teenager).

ETA: I just noticed how much current UK TV Tim has a hand in.

I love a man who can say, "That pan was better than the last pan."

I'm not one to denigrate shows like Law & Order, which I also watch. It's tightly written and well acted. L&O: CI is actually pretty damn quirky. It's just that the focused stand-alone episodes are easier for the occasional TV watcher to watch. I'm not a reality show fan, because I like shows with actual writers and actors. If I wanted to watch unscripted stupidity, I could get to know my next-door neighbor better.

If I wanted to watch unscripted stupidity, I could get to know my next-door neighbor better.

Amen. The place I lived post-college totally dissipated any appeal Cops might have had for me, as the guest cast seemed to live on my street.

One of the fans reactions to the news:

" I hope FOX gets eaten by a 900 lb cannibal. *fumes*"

Heh.

I liked some of the other shows from the UK too. (As well as all of the ones ita mentioned) Jonathan Creek, As time goes by (a sitcom starring Dame Judi Dench!), At Home With the Braithwaites (talk about dysfunctional families) etc.

Tim, do the networks decide that your shows are just adverts for the forthcoming DVDs? Pisses me off. Still, I will buy them. ESPECIALLY for the commentaries. (I have all of the aired eps on Do Not Delete on the Tivo.)

While FOX can be blamed a tiny bit for being impatient and wanting results now-now-now -- they're not alone in this as it's something in todays the television business at the moment -- really, I think they've gotten way better with their shows. Despite all things, didn't they actually promote the Inside unlike the other cancelled shows? And they gave it what appeared to be a good timeslot. If they majority of the viewers choose to watch people dancing for hours or a re-run of L&O, what can you do? Especially the dance thing, I can't believe they got that many viewers.

Nicklas, you're half right. The on-air promos were quite good. The time slot, as it turned out, sucked, since we were up against what turned out to be the Idol-like hit of the summer. That may have worked out anyway, if the network had had the proper time to launch it. On-air promotion is one thing. It's one part of a show launch campaign. But it was the only thing we got. Unless there is enough lead time to really launch a show, with a real campaign to raise awareness, then the only people who will know about the show are those who watch Fox air. For instance, TNT brought a much larger audience to "The Closer." And one didn't need to be watching TNT to be aware of it. I was aware of it, and I never watch TNT. That's because they knew what their air date was going to be months in advance. We knew only weeks in advance. I drive down the street here in LA, and I see "the Closer" billboards on bus stops, Shield billboards, Rescue Me billboards. We had nothing other than the on-air promos. Bones and Prison Break are being promo-ed now, months before they air. And in places other than Fox air. You get my point. When the network finally decided they wanted to air spots elsewhere and in other media, they couldn't find anything, everything had already been pre sold.

I don't blame Fox at all for being impatient. But it's their job to bring the audience, it's our job to keep the audience and build on it, which is exactly what we've been doing.

This is really the only way this was going to shake out. Ask Allyson, I've been telling her this since they gave us the summer air date. The truth is, we were in a kind of box. Because of the storied history of the project known as "The Inside," if they'd held us until fall, they would have resented us, we would have had the stink of old goods that had been sitting on the shelf too long. By shoving us into the summer without the proper campaign, we were destined to flounder. Shrug.

Tim, I'm sorry to hear the bad news. Each week, my love for the show has been growing more and more and I've been looking forward to seeing where it all leads (I really wanted to know more about Web and why he assembled that particular crew of agents.)...unfortunately, I guess it's leading to DVDs and more ire towards FOX for ripping my TV-lovin' heart out yet again.

Regardless of the outcome, thanks again for giving us (fill in the blank) hours of great TV, even if FOX won't play nice and share all of them with us over the airwaves.

ETA: That lack of lead time was really unfair. I saw the promos back when they were still "coming soon," and I thought, "Good, there's some promotion going on." I thought they were going to build it up through the summer and was surprised when the premiere was actually announced. Flipping that around, once The Inside was set for a summer debut, I was surprised to see the promos for Prison Break and then hear it wouldn't launch until the fall. Since FOX experimented with an offseason schedule last year, I thought that was the direction they were going in again beginning with the launch of The Inside. Now, The Inside just gets cast adrift while other shows will have all summer to build up word of mouth and they'll point and say, "See, this show had an audience off the bat, blah, blah" without taking into account how they screwed it all up.

I'm just gonna go cry somewhere now.

Why are most of my DVDs TV shows that were cancelled before their time? WHY?

Grr.