It continues to floor us that the executives and powers that be at networks and streaming sites cannot seem to fathom that, in the last decade or so, they’ve built a distrustful and fractured relationship with viewers. “We canceled this show because no one was watching.” No, people weren’t watching because they’ve been burned so badly in the past that they now choose not to watch TV shows until there are guaranteed renewals. And in the case of Prime Video’s Étoile, which had a two-season order, fans were still met with yet another devastating cancellation.
Both Étoile and My Lady Jane are also shows that were released all at once during inconvenient times, but that’s not the point. Why not weekly? Why not promote the show and allow the conversations to fill social spaces? The same can be said about The Wheel of Time, which fans likely thought they’d get a pick-up on, but with the bare minimum of promotion and few things to show for, somehow, these invisible numbers come up short.
How are we still not aware that the problem lies within the system, because fans will continually band together and run renewal campaigns? Fans will always spread the news. Fans will always put in the work, but at what cost? They shouldn’t be doing it alone. They should have the networks backing them. How long do they have to keep watching something with their hearts in their throat, wondering if the thing they’ve just attached themselves to will be axed or renewed?
We’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve heard: “I’ll watch it after it’s all over.” We have also lost count of the number of similar articles we’ve written because we keep watching the heartbreak unfold on social media. It’s unfathomable that a network would give people the guarantee of a job and then decide, nope. It’s cruel. And it’s only going to continue making it harder and harder for people to watch new TV shows.