Angel axed to make way for repeats
Angel axed to make way for repeats
WB President, Jordan Levin has found himself constantly defending his decision since announcing that the network giant was axing Angel from its schedule. Under a huge amount of pressure from fans and the media, Levin said, "We have a lot of veteran shows that are aging, and we're going to have to make room for new programs."
One of these new programs includes Dark Shadows, a gothic soap opera about a vampire that first aired in 1966 but was axed five years later due to poor ratings. The WB has high hopes for the series and has recruited the talent of John Wells, better known for his work on dramas such as ER and The West Wing. But the audience it is aimed at are the fans of other vampire shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel who have been made to feel alienated following the networks decision. One WB viewer said, "Well the WB just lost me in watching their new show. I would have watched it because I love vampire shows and maybe I would have liked this one, but dropping Angel for this? They will never see me on that station again unless it is for Angel."
Levin continued to go further into explaining why the show about the soulful vampire was not renewed for a sixth season. He said, "We need to create timeslots where we can repeat shows."
So it would seem that a new series of Angel has been turned away in order to create time slots for repeats. A viewer of the WB said, "I don't want to see constant repeats on my television! I want something new not something old and tired. The new season of Angel has been a breath of fresh air. I was looking forward to seeing the sixth season."
The decision from the large network may not have been the right one especially if the ratings are anything to go by. The WB are currently showing repeats of Smallville on Sundays where it fails to top 3 million viewers with audiences preferring to tune in to never-seen-before shows on other stations. But fans of the show about Clark Kent's early years are already showing their disapproval for the new series which is also currently being aired. They have described the episodes as, "poorly written." One viewer said, "I hope the future is a brighter one for Smallville, and includes more clever scripts than the past two weeks have demonstrated."
So while the network fails to hold the interest of long-time fans of its shows, the main aim from the WB appears to be to draw in new audiences in an attempt to climb the ladder in the ratings battle. As Levin continued to talk of the reasons why Angel was axed, he said, "The show had a loyal core following, but it didn't have a tremendous amount of new audience upside." One has to question the decision from Levin to buy the rights to Dark Shadows which is from the same genre as Angel - opting to take "new" over "already established."
The head of the WB remains adamant that the decision was the right one and maintains that, "This isn't about the WB bailing out on one of its top shows."
It is not just the fans who are baffled by the decision from the WB to cancel what the President of the network admits is "one of its top shows," but people in the entertainment industry are also scratching their heads.
Jeph Loeb, who co-developed Buffy: The Animated Series with Angel creator, Joss Whedon said, "All the people who were involved in the show from the very beginning really gave it their all. I don't think there are any lazy episodes. They put a lot of heart and effort into a very difficult premise and came up with a show that I'm a very big fan of. I'll miss the characters and I'll miss the writing, because I think it was very smart."
Former Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer, Drew Greenberg added, "Why was that decision made? The show is doing so well, and they were having such a good year. It's a decision I don't understand."
Even Smallville creator, Al Gough fails to make sense of the saga. "I don't know why they cancelled Angel," said Gough who may well be worried about the future of his own show on the WB network. "With Smallville on at 8pm and Angel at 9pm, we had a really good block of programming and a lot of fan crossover between the two shows. Considering the ratings and the quality of the show this year, we were shocked that they cancelled it."
USA Today's well-respected Critic, Robert Bianco recently wrote, "No series is having a much better season than Angel." He went on to say that the decision to cancel the show was hard to take.
Fans, critics, writers and producers all remain shocked that the show was cancelled when it was doing well in the ratings and was receiving praise from all who tuned into it. Joss Whedon's quote from a recent statement sums up the general feeling perfectly, "You wanna know how I feel? Watch the first act of "The Bod.""
Whedon remains as eloquent as ever....
Written by Andrea Clarke at Buffy-vs-Angel.com
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