Message to NBC: Don’t cancel Timeless on Friday night
As many CarterMatt readers out there know, one of the worst days of a TV viewer’s given year is Bloody Friday. This is the day in which many networks choose to announce whether or not some of your favorite shows are canceled. That happened earlier this year (it typically comes before upfronts), and it was especially ugly this year given that this is when we lost countless shows. (The end of Lucifer is the one that still stings the most.)
The good news for Timeless is that it survived Bloody Friday. The bad news, however, is that we are coming up to what we are thinking about calling Doorbell Ditch Friday (not the catchiest name, we know). Remember that game from when you were a kid? It’s basically where you run up to a stranger’s home, ring the doorbell, and then run off before you can be held accountable for your actions. That’s what many out there, not only television networks, like to do moving into Memorial Day. It’s a substantial three-day weekend and the idea here is that if they announce unfortunate news here, there will be less time for it to stick around the news cycle. By the time most major publications come back with their full staff the following Tuesday, everyone will be focused on some new things. If people complain over the break, they won’t be around to hear it.
Is this idea really all that relevant in 2018? Both yes and no. We do think that there are more outlets and sounding boards for discussions than there used to be, which means that burying a story for some networks is likely so much harder than it once was. Yet, at the same time the news cycle is also moving so quickly now that outlets don’t have a lot of time to spend on any one story.
Our main point here in relation to Timeless and NBC is this: If the network tries to cancel the show on Friday and bury it, we really hope that they’re not rewarded for that. If you’re going to end the show, at least do it alongside some sort of explanation or a formal statement. Come out and offer something to the fans rather than dropping some news and then taking off before you can be accountable for it. Fans deserve that much after all the campaigning and effectively, free promotion that they’ve handed your way.
We’re still hoping for a renewal and still think that it deserves one — for now, though, we’re just thinking that the show surviving tomorrow would be a victory since it means that the network is not stalling on the cancellation to try and bury it over the three-day weekend.
Once there is some more news regarding Timeless and the future, we are going to have some of it for you over at the link here. Be on the lookout for it!
Also, remember that you can like CarterMatt on Facebook to book some more insight regarding Timeless the moment that we have them. (Photo: NBC.)