Despite being on Lifetime for less than a year, supernatural drama Blood Ties has developed an intensely devout following. Still, the last two episodes of the season were aired online only. Has the series been cancelled or will the vampire return for more adventures?
Blood Ties is a Canadian series that’s based on the books of fantasy author Tanya Huff. Set in Toronto, the series follows private investigator Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox) who left the police force when she began to lose her eyesight. She ends up partnering with mysterious Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid) who turns out to be a 480-year-old vampire and the illegitimate son of Henry the VIII. The two slowly become attracted to one another, a situation complicated by Vicki’s relationship with her former partner, Mike Celluci (Dylan Neal).
The show premiered on March 11, 2007 on Lifetime Television in the U.S. and began airing several months later in Canada. While the first season of 13 episodes was still airing, Lifetime ordered a second season of nine more (the 22 episodes were actually originally produced as a single season). Lifetime had other programming scheduled for the summer months so the “second season” didn’t begin airing until October 12, 2007.
The show aired as part of Lifetime’s “Psy-Fridays” line-up, alongside Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead and America’s Psychic Challenge. According to TV Guide, because the other two shows ran out of episodes, Lifetime opted to rework the night’s schedule and relegated the two remaining Blood Ties episodes to an online release.
Lifetime hasn’t officially cancelled the show but the “online exclusive” treatment is usually reserved for a series that’s finished. So, if Lifetime cancels the series, is that the end? Maybe, or maybe not.
There is already interest in continuing the series among Canadian broadcasters but a U.S. partner is likely needed to help with the financing. Without that backing, we could have a rerun of what happened to the Falcon Beach teen drama last year. When ABC Family decided against a third season, it wasn’t financially possible for Canada’s Global TV to pay for Beach on its own and the show was cancelled.
If a new U.S. channel is found, Blood Ties executive producer Randy Zalken says the series will certainly be back. He told Eonline, “The sets are still available — they’ve not been destroyed — our talent is very eager to come back, and our show runner, Peter Mohan, is standing by.”
Zalken doesn’t believe the ongoing writers strike would be standing in the way if Blood Ties were to get a season three greenlight. He said, “I don’t think the strike is going to hurt us, because Canadian writers are not hindered by the U.S. guild rules. So, we can be delivering new shows for the fall — I guess that’s more than a lot of [U.S.] producers are saying now.”
Nice as that sounds, Zalken may be underestimating the WGA support of Canadian writers. Blood Ties author Tanya Huff had been writing episode commentary for the Lifetime website but stopped in support of the writers strike. Blood Ties screenwriter Denis McGrath is a solid supporter of the WGA strike as well.
For now, we may have to wait until Lifetime makes a final choice to either cancel or to renew the series. Part of their decision may hinge on how well the Blood Ties reruns perform next month. The entire series will be rerun on weekend nights beginning Saturday, February 9th. Will the vampire series rise again? Stay tuned! 
I LOVE Blood Ties and am so miffed that not only might it be canceled, but I missed the last 2 episodes because lame Lifetime wanted to show those worthless made for tv movies. in addition, I despise reality tv and this year there are even more. I wish we could contribute to the ratings so that we could kill reality tv and all the other riff raff, and not suffer these losses. I wrote an email to Lifetime about my desire for Blood Ties to return and basically got “thanks for your interest but don’t call us and we… Read more »
You can’t cancel blood ties. it is a fantastic show with a great cast and it deserves to be on tv! us Canadians know what we are talking about! come on American broadcasting stations!
Hello!!! BLOOD TIES FANGNATICS…………………’How are ya???’ Fine I hope!!! look, I just wanted to let you gals and guys know that it’s ‘full-throttle’ and ‘game on’ in getting our show back on our tv screens where it belongs. The goal now………………is to e-mail the S–T out of this canadian company name CTVGLOBEMEDIA. There e-mail address is: ctvglobemediacommunications@ctvglobemedia.com and also keep in contact with all the other networks besides LIFETIME. We must make their behinds fearful of the strong possibility that another network could snatch this show up from them and make it bigger than they could even possibly imagine. So,… Read more »
Please dont cancel blood ties, im like everyone else waiting on season 3.
Hello!!! ALL……………….’How is everyone???’ look, I just wanted to let you all know about the latest news about our show BLOOD TIES. We the BT FANBASE has heard from Kristin from E!Online, that we should be getting a confirmation of CANCELLATION or RENEWAL come sometime this month. We the fans are hoping too hear the news either at MEGACON in Orlando, Florida(I think)next weekend, OR…………….on the date of their first anniversary when they debuted this month on the 11th. So, keep those fingers and toes and whatever else that you can BEND & FLEX to CROSS, WHEN the show do… Read more »
BLOOD TIES HAS TO COME BACK !!!! I MEAN COME ON IT’S FAR THAT CANADA GETS TO SEE THE SHOW AND THE US CAN’T I MEAN WHAT WILL THAT DO FOR THE BLOOD TIES I MEAN I DIDN’T EVEN GET TO SEE THE LAST TO EPSOIDES BECAUSE THEY WERE ONLINE AND I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPEN TO HENRY AND VICKI AND IT’S DRIVING ME NUTS!!!
SO PLEASE LIFETIME BRING BACK BLOODTIES!
IT IS UPSETTING HOW THEY ALWAYS TRY TO PLAN CANCELLING THE GOOD SHOWS TO KEEP THE NOT SO GREAT ONES AIRING. I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THE WAY AMERICAN TV WORKS. THEY HAVE ISSUES. BLOOD TIES IS AWESOME!! I AGREE THAT LIFETIME IS NOT THE PERFECT PLACE FOR A SHOW LIKE THIS TO BE. IT COULD GET A MUCH BIGGER AND BETTER FAN BASE ON SCI FI OR ANOTHER NETWORK OF THEIR CALIBER. LIFETIME IS KINDA LAME FOR A TV SERIES. ESPECIALLY A GOOD ONE LIKE BLOOD TIES. I’M SURE IT WILL BE BACK ON AIR FOR SEASON 3. SOMEONE WILL… Read more »
Please do not cancel this show. I love it!! I miss it! I am waiting on season 3. I have watched every episode . Looking for season 3. Thanks!
I think that Blood Ties should be put back on TV so we can watch it here in the US. With the great fan base that the show has I think it would be wrong if it’s not put back on TV. I agree that a more responsible network needs to help finance Blood Ties and help the Canadian network to get it back on the air. I am tired of all the stupid reality tv shows. Blood Ties is not some B rated show. It has everything that you could ask for in a TV show. GET BLOOD TIES… Read more »
I hope Lifetime or another network picks this show up for another season. It’s a fantastic show with a growing fan base – even though it’s not being shown currently on TV.
olz plz do not cancel this show . blood ties is the best show on tv it really needs a 3 rd series . i dont understand how they can cancel it everyone i know watches it , family members watch it . it has fantastic characters ,a wicked story line and a awswome romance plz dont cancel plz ***
I hope they renew. I don’t hold out much hope, though, as supernatural television series usually are not given a chance to develop a following. I think it’s a great show with fantastic chemistry between the main characters. Here’s to hoping Lifetime or another network pick it up. 🙂
I really hope this show comes back on. I always wanted to watch it but i had no cable so i rely on the Comp I resently started watching it and i really want more i feel like i cant live without it lol its an awesome show and i hope Canada Gets what it needs to get it back on!!!!
I agree people are tired of watching reality shows we have enough of that in real life. This has by far been a great show to watch, me and my 10 year old watch it faithfully. I don’t get it have a good show why cancel and take down the companies ratings because you don’t want to listen to the publics opinions. Without viewers networks does not get good ratings, think about it.
I dislike Lifetime as much as I adore Blood Ties. I sincerely hope that a more professional, responsible network buys Blood Ties. That last lame act of not airing the last two episdoes — the finale for cripes’ sake! — was the stupidest thing I ever heard of. No one does that! Lifetime is so pathetic to try to up their ratings on one of their rarely viewed channels (one would assume by this action) by showing Blood Ties there. Come one, already! They obviously realize that Blood Ties is a hit or they wouldn’t pull that crap. WANTED: A… Read more »