Fox has apparently axed the best new show on television, Reunion, after episode 13 of a widely advertised 22. They might not even show any past tonight's episode 9. Now this happens all the time, but with this show it's particularly annoying. It might even be actionable.
The idea with the show is that it's a mystery, following 6 close friends over twenty years, 1986 to 2006, one episode per year. One of them has killed another at their 20th high school reunion. Whodunnit and why? Dropping the show after 13 (or 9) episodes kinda blows the whole deal. Not even a DVD possibility. Of course, being a critically acclaimed, well-acted and intelligent show, it got low ratings, which is why they killed it.
On the other hand, unlike most other shows, they advertised it from the beginning as a season-length show. A "24", if you will. Stopping it mid-way seems to violate a not-so-implied promise, and may be false advertising as well: They knew they might not produce all the episodes yet made the claim anyway.
Now, if you believe Nielsen in the TiVo age, there were at minimum 4.3 million devotees, who have had 9 hours stolen from them. Is this actionable? Say, $1/hour times 4.3 million people. Or $38.7M. Any hungry lawyers out there?
Anyway, I'm pissed.
Posted by Kevin Murphy at December 15, 2005 09:40 PM