TNT has announced that their Holly Hunter drama is coming to an end. Interestingly, it wasn’t exactly the network’s decision. But, regardless of who’s responsible, the fans will have to wait quite awhile to see the story wrap up.
Saving Grace focuses on a police detective, Grace Hanadarko (Holly Humter), wo’s great at her job but finds her personal life far more challenging. The series also features Leon Rippy, Kenny Johnson, Bailey Chase, Laura San Giacomo, Gregory Cruz, Lorraine Toussaint, Dylan Minnette, Bokeem Woodbine, Mark L. Taylor, and Tom Irwin.
The show debuted in July 2007 and attracted 6.4 million viewers, making it the highest-rated cable premiere so far that year.
Season two’s debut attracted 5.2 million and, this past June, season three’s return drew just 3.5 million. TNT remained very positive about the series, likely because it consistently rates first with adults 25-54.
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Last season, the network ordered a second season of 15 episodes. The first nine aired during the Summer of 2008 and the other six began running last March. TNT ordered the same number for season three and the first grouping finishes its summer cycle this Tuesday.
According to THR, TNT wanted to pick the series up for a fourth season but Fox TV Studios actually declined the offer. The drama is an expensive one to produce and there’s apparently not enough profit in the cable deal for the studio to continue.
A spokesperson for Fox told Variety, “In today’s rapidly changing television world, shows need to drive revenue off too many sources in order to be profitable for all the partners. Unfortunately, the economics of the series mandated stronger international and ancillary revenue than the show was able to generate. We thought an appropriate ending after three extremely successful seasons was the best outcome for all parties involved.”
Since the series has several ongoing storylines, Fox and TNT agreed to produce three additional episodes to wrap up any loose ends. The network will combine them with the remaining installments from this season and hold them until next Summer. So, fans will get some closure to the series but they’ll have to wait a few extra months to get it.
Michael Wright, TNT’s Executive VP head of programming, is sorry to see the show end. In a statement, he said, “The show’s continued success is thanks to the amazing talents of Holly Hunter and [series creator] Nancy Miller, along with a tremendous ensemble cast and a highly skilled production team. They have taken us on a unique journey, and we look forward to seeing where it will ultimately lead.”
What do you think? Are you ready t say goodbye to Grace Hanadarko? Would you like to see the cast return, perhaps in TV movies?
Image courtesy TNT.
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I truly believe that Grace could become another Sopranos. Nobody expected that Sopranos would have the impact it did, nobody thought it would last. Grace is the same way. The difference is HBO was smart enough to negiotiate with the cast of Sopranos and do what it took to keep it running. They paid the extra money; they have more than regained what they spent. So the Fox networks need to wise up and realize that Grace is truly a goldmine. The amount of income it could generate is unreal if they’d just give it a chance. Instead there are shows like Housewives of somewhere that nobody cares, people screaming and yelling, drama that makes you sick, geez, I could go on and on what’s bad out there, and instead of looking at those mindless, meaningless shows they leave them and pull Grace. Lets keep the petition going, keep our letters going to the network. I googled Fox network to get their phone number but they were closed at 4am. I tried to call! lol I’ll google it again and post the phone number and address to contact them. I will if the moderator will let me post them. If not, google it yourself and call them. I really wanted a chance to vent to someone and get it off my chest what I thought of them for being idiots. Lets just keep doing what we can.
Save Grace, we need it.
Marilyn
Marilyn, have you signed the petition at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/TNT37/
I truly don’t know if FOX is listening or if they give a flip, but I’m going to keep on trying…
I can’t believe that you are going to let Saving Grace go down the drain and keep such mindless crap as all the emptyheaded reality shows. I know they are cheap to produce but come on, it’s just dumbing down human beings’ minds. We need more shows like Saving Grace that have some substance to them. Please find a way to save this show. The writing and acting is superb. There just isn’t enough shows like this out there. We have found a few great shows and this is one of them. Recently NBC decided to pull the plug on Southland but with a great letter writing campaign it has been picked up by the cable channel TNT and it is so great. Another wonderfully written and acted show. I can name shows like Damages, Raising the Bar, The Good Wife, In Plain Sight. These are shows that we truly look forward to every week. Friday Night Lights is another show that was going to go down the drain until Directv partnered with NBC and kept it going. We hated to see Sopranos and Deadwood come to and end. They could have kept these two shows going for many more seasons. Instead we get The Housewives of Somewhere each year or The Bachelor or The Biggest Loser. Pablum for the mind. One show that we pray keeps going is Men of a Different Age. It is so well written and acted with a great cast. Probably will be shortlived though because it’s too good.
Well, thanks for letting us vent. I guess we should be greatful for the few good shows that we still have.
Ray and Barb
I agree with You 100%….I have never missed an episode, this is such a good show. Now Fox will just save the cash and add another stupid show with bad actors and terrible writting…I’m so happy I pay such a high price for my cable bill to see the crap they keep and the good shows they throw away. I am at the point where why bother to watch a New Show….if You like it cuz it will be cancelled…Thanks Jann
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/TNT37/ – follow the link and sign the petition…post it on Facebook, MySpace, wherever you have friends…
They are dropping Saving Grace and picking up Southland. That says it all. Sorry, Southland fans, I do not see this as a fair trade.
They are giong for the cheap shows rather than the quality shows. Yes, they are keeping some excellent shows: Leverage and The Closer are wonderful. But dumping Grace and Earl in favor of Southland is ludicrous.
My only prayer is that another production company will be smart enough to continue with the Emmy combination that Holly Hunter and Saving Grace provide. TNT would have kept them if FOX had not stopped production.
ALL THEY NEED TO DO IS FIND ANOTHER STUDIO. TNT, HAVE YOU LOOKED?
NANCY MILLER, Grace is your baby…please, find a new venue for her!!!
Come on Mary, they are both great shows and we love them both. I want to see more of Saving Grace but I also got involved in saving Southland. Both are so well written and acted. We really love them both.
Ray
I’m glad that someone likes Southland. I do not happen to be a fan of any of this genre of cop shows. I watched only one episode of The Shield and that’s what Southland seems to be. No, I haven’t watched enough of it know differently, and no, I won’t.
Ray and Barb, have you signed the petition to save Saving Grace? The link is http://www.PetitionOnline.com/TNT37/
Fox and TNT, are you realizing your error yet? It’s not too late to redo the last episode of the season to make it a season finale, not a series finale…Nancy Miller, are you diligently looking for another production studio? You taught us to EMBRACE OUR GRACE now you are taking her from us? This is so WRONG!!!
Not enough profit? That says it. Maybe the actors need to give back a little something and/or FOX is just crazy greedy. I’m very sad to see Grace go.
I won’t watch Southland, I didn’t watch it on NBC and won’t watch it on TNT
Best show on tv, hate to see it go. The end of Grace is one of the reasons why folks like continue to watch less and less television, go figure!
SO SAD. My favorite SHOW!
We have so few intelligent shows with great actors and actresses, story lines, thought provoking always and now sure take the good stuff off maybe you can put another stupid reality show on to replace it I doubt that very much… Seba
A reminder to VKC, Cathy, Robyn and Seba: have you signed the petition to save Saving Grace? The link is http://www.PetitionOnline.com/TNT37/
My DVR is set to record Gace “any day, any time” so that even when they air it at 4:00AM I can see it. But DVRs don’t help the ratings. I am really in a quandry over this, because they are saying they are pulling it for lack of DVD sales. DVDs are not in my budget right now, but if that purchase would keep her on the air I would do it. On the other hand, why should I reward them financially for pulling my favorite show? Any suggestions out there?
Ok, I admit the obvious: when I get emotional my typing goes down the tubes. I know her name is Grace, not Gace.
The thought occured to me that one of the reasons we are getting so many cheap trash drivel shows is that the owner of NewsCorp and the man in charge of production are both European. (England and Italy) They are showing their disdain for American viewers by giving us drivel and using the excuse that we don’t support or deserve anything better than the low-cost no effort reality shows they are feeding us. Kind of like “Hustler” in the living room. Yes, that’s what some of these shows are like.
And, to a degree they may be right: Murdoch is a billionaire, controlling an enormous amont of American airtime and publications. He feeds us just enough substance to keep our minds involved for maybe 4 hours a week. The rest of the time he appeals to the basest minds of society, playing down to them instead of trying to lift them above the gutter. He is in in for the money, period. I’m not certain what good his billions will do him when he leaves this planet, but he has proven by his choices that he won’t be meeting Earl or anyone like him. Hmmmm…yes, I am that upset!
Regarding Mary’s note about no DVD sales… well geez, we want the show, now dvd’s. However I did order the DVD’s when I found them online and it wasn’t all that expensive. I got the first season and second season for about 70 bucks. Its actually cheap when you compare it to the Sopranos which are still running close to 100 bucks per season. Some of the others are really expensive too, but I digress. Lets keep on with the talk and figure out what to do to save Grace. I’m still hoping that either HBO or Showtime will grab it up and keep it going. Its the only sensible thing to do. The story lines are as endless as we human beings are. We could all give Earl something to do!
Don’t you just love the relationship he’s built with Grace? Lets keep that petition alive and keep pounding at the networks.
RE: DVD sales – they said they weren’t making enough money off the show and that’s why they stopped production. So if we buy the DVDs maybe that will capture their attention. Or, NOT. But if she’s going to be gone, I want her on my shelf. If she’s reincarnated on a different channel, I still want the first season…and you’re right: Showtime would be an excellent home for her if we can’t get her any other way. But in this economy, not all people can afford to get the premium channels and it would not be fair to them to have to pay extra to see her. And the truth is, I don’t think Rupert and Emiliano give a flip how much we love the show. They are trying to dumb down America and removing intelligent shows is the way to start.
I just found out about another of our favorite shows that isn’t coming back. We love law shows if done seriously and believable. That’s why we really liked “Raising the bar”. And now we find out that they had a three show marathon on Christmas Eve of all days. We didn’t know about it so we will never know what happened in the end. Just another great show down the drain for no good reason other than corporate greed. There must be a way to save some of these shows even if it means having to pay for them. We used to use Netflix and watch them after the series would complete for the season. We loved the Sopranos, Deadwood, and now we are hooked on Brotherhood that is through Directv. Also Friday Night Lights is a great show with great writing and acting. It’s not for “brainiacs” but it is just a good entertaining show. I guess what we look for is realism that we can believe actually could happen. All the shows that we used to look forward to like Law and Order (all three of the series), CSI, NCIS, have all gotten so convoluted in their stories that we have lost interest in them. There are darn few decent shows on broadcast tv anymore. We have found many on cable channels and now they are started to screw with them. It makes a person wonder where tv viewing is going. I’m ready to just turn it off and read a good book.
USA has some very entertaining shows now: White Collar, psych and Burn Notice seasons just ended, but Royal Pains and In Plain Sight are returning this month. You might check them out…If we are giving up on TNT if they drop Grace, there really are some decent alternatives. Not with the relevance or redemption that Grace and Earl offer, by a long shot, but entertainig. AND NOT ON TNT!!!
To save our Grace, sign the petition – and, TNT – to save your ratings, KEEP GRACE ON THE AIR! We don’t care what studio does the production work, we just want to have this show in our lives!!!
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/TNT37/
They should not stop this show.. Saving Grace is one of the best. It is what television
should be. NOT ALL THE REALITY CRAP!!!!!!
Delighted this turkey is finally gone. It was only made to play up to the religious mania of the bush years. Now that the reign of ignorance is over, axing it is part of the clean up.
And what do you watch, dear? The Simpsons?
FORGET FOX! If they are too STUPID to keep SAVING GRACE going, then let’s just cut FOX out of our lives! We might get lucky and have someone with more between their ears who will pick up the show. Ithink the REAL reason they are closing down Grace, is that despite all their retoric, Fox is still a bunch of sexist idiots—why they must be Republicans. I know somewhere else we will see Holly’s and Nancy’s work. They are both the BEST. We love the rest of the crew too.
Fox says they are dropping Saving Grace because they are not making enough money off the show. I just visited the FOX store to buy the DVDs and found that A) they are not even offering her on the first pge (you have to type in the name and do a specific search for the show) and B) they offer it only in a widescreen version. I do not have a widescreen TV and will not buy that version. SO if they are unhappy about no DVD sales, they should A) make the show part of the front page offerings along with ALLY MCBEAL -off the air for how many years now? and B)sell a regular-screen version.
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