This is regarding shows such ...
Question: This is regarding shows such as
Eyes and
The Inside. When a network cancels a show, but doesn't even complete the run of episodes made, is there any reason they don't broadcast the remaining shows in a late-night/early-morning slot so that fans can at least see them? After all, they have paid to make the episodes. Or do you think they hold out to use the unaired episodes as a selling point for any potential DVD releases?
Answer: As I think I've said before, network decisions aren't likely to be made with DVD considerations in mind (as in: "Let's pull the show two weeks early so we can tout the 'never-before-seen episodes' on the DVD"). But I only wish I could explain why some canceled shows have their episodes burned off and others simply vanish. (I thought it was cool, for instance, when
Karen Sisco's remaining episodes were played out on cable, albeit on a network owned by the company that produced the series.) Someone once told me why NBC burned off the last remaining episodes of
Boomtown over a New Year's weekend — there were tax or other financial reasons — and the network also eventually aired long-on-the-shelf episodes of last fall's dud
LAX. But it does seem to me that ABC could devote one of its already-low-rated Saturdays to play out the remaining episodes of
Eyes, and Fox could turn over a Friday in summer to what's left of
The Inside. But when you get right down to it, the only reason they'd do such a thing is to appease fans, and that's not what ultimately drives the networks' bottom line.
