‘Bunheads’ canceled officially by ABC Family, and the story ends sadly

Anyone following the tale of “Bunheads” knew that it was coming, and the lack of a Sutton Foster Emmy nomination last week was probably the nail in the coffin. After weeks of tormenting fans by a lack of information, and for using their Twitter account at times to promote other shows that led up to its demise, ABC Family officially confirmed on Monday night that this series has been canceled. This follows up the earlier report from TVLine that the show was really clinging onto dear life.

There’s really no way to get around the anger that is deservedly going to come the network’s way now, and not just because they’ve kept the fans waiting for months; they have also caused the actors to sit around and wonder what their future is going to be. They loved this show, so surely they did not want to move on without knowing for sure that the curtain had dropped on the ballet.

While we do still wonder if the show could have improved their ratings for season 2 with a digital campaign attracting new viewers to the series during the off months (it worked for “Breaking Bad”), it is not a surprise from a business standpoint that this would be the call. TV is about ratings at the end of the day, and the “Bunheads” numbers were lower than either of the new series “The Fosters” and “Twisted” when you compare from one summer to the next. It was never the ratings that had us so frustrated with the network in the first place; it was the feet-dragging that any ballet instructor would be upset with.

What do you think about the “Bunheads” cancellation, and how awful is this on scale of 1-10? We have a whole list of articles counting the many mistakes that ABC Family made with their handling of this here, so read on and also remember that “Make It or Break It” also had a similarly depressing fate.

Photo: ABC Family