Veronica Mars cancelled

Not a surprise, but it's sad to see one of the few good shows on television go away. The season finale, which will technically be a series finale, is a two hour episode next Tuesday.

What is sad is that they couldn't make this decision two months ago when they were still writing/filming so that season 3 could lead to a true series finale that wraps up loose ends. While I believe those involved with the show knew in their heads that season 4 wasn't likely, it sounds like the season finale sets up things for season 4 rather than wrapping up the series.

While the poor ratings make the cancellation somewhat an obvious choice, there's a greater decision by CW what the network wants to stand for and what business plan it has. In the short run, it's all about ratings which convert to advertising dollars. But putting a bunch of trash on television (quick, name a show on CW other than Everybody Hates Chris), especially reality TV with cheap stunts, may give them a ratings boost short term, but in the long run they have inferior knock offs of shows the big 4 networks are doing and those fail. Remember all of the attempts to copy "Friends"; actually you probably don't remember them but there was one on the fall schedule every yea. CW has no "theme" or style other than we show the crap that CBS is too good to show. Despite its stuggles, UPN always had shows that appealed to the black crowd and could market to that demographic. CW used to have young, hip family dramas (with cult followings) but it's killed all of them.

My prediction: in six months, CW is consistently the sixth-highest rated network, is scrambling for mid-season replacements and Dawn Ostroff's job is in real jeopardy.

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