Though Eureka remains one of Syfy’s most popular TV series, the cable channel cancelled it earlier this week. What’s even more perplexing is that Syfy announced that Eureka had been renewed for an abbreviated sixth season last week. They even issued a statement to assure viewers that they hoped to continue the show beyond that. Why was it cancelled?
Eureka executive producer Amy Berg shed some light on the move via Twitter, indicating that Syfy didn’t want to cancel the show but financially, Comcast mandated it. She said, “We are the network’s golden child in every way, except profit margins. Fact is, #Eureka is an expensive show to make. And we could not maintain the quality of our show with the cuts it would take to make us profitable for Syfy’s new parent company. Our creative execs at Syfy fought hard to keep us. Trust me, they LOVE us. We just couldn’t make the numbers work.”
The cast and crew were in the midst of filming the end of season five when the cancellation news came down. With such short notice, it seemed unlikely that they would be able to bring the show to a satisfying conclusion with such short notice.
Thankfully, Syfy has now ordered one additional episode so that, as Berg puts it, “we can end the series on our terms.” She indicated that she’s working on the series finale and it will be shot the week of the 21st.
For those keeping count, this means that there are 19 episodes of Eureka left; five more for this season and 14 for season five.
What do you think? Are you glad to hear there will be a true series finale? How would you like to see the show end?
Image courtesy Syfy.
Another in a long list of intelligent, well written shows to be cancelled due to profit margins. No wonder TV is called the boob tube, that’s what you get, boobs and boobs (dumb showes and 1/2 naked bodies). I think the legacy of Eureka will be, more seamless advertising and viewers looking for more intelligent science fiction. I personally loved those features. Good luck to cast & crew, we’ll miss you!
Comcast…..is crap, has always been crap, and will always be crap. If there was another alternative, I’d drop Comcast in a second. Everyone I have ever met hates Comcast because they offer poor quality reception and they overcharge for it. Every year they increase their rates and their service sucks. When I asked one of their customer reps why they were increasing my rates when they haven’t improved anything, she told me that they were raising their rates because they could. Before Comcast took over my cable company, I was paying $62 for cable TV and cable internet. Once Comcast… Read more »
I can understand a lack of money, and needing the spreadsheets to make sense. The only fear that I have is: As an English Person, I remember a Show called, “Red Dwarf”. This was one of the greatest Sci-Fi Comedies of the time, however, today it is really dated, and People’s sense of Humour has moved on… Worse still, the Actors have gotten old, forgotten their Characters, and moved onto new pastures… So I ask You: If You cut a Show for any length of time, how can You ever garentee a revival? I don’t think You can. I think… Read more »
I hate it when shows are cancelled and we are left as an audience with cliffhangers and a horrible feeling of ‘not knowing’ thinking of shows like Threshold and Invasion here. It would be great to get a satisfying ending for once from Eureka because they have had enough notice. Such a shame to see it go.
Thankfully I don’t have to buy Comcast’s cable in my area; I don’t think these companies realize just how much money they lose when they cancel quality programming like this in favor or sports and staged reality programming. I will be removing my television feed and going to internet-only myself.
I genuinely don’t understand how a quality show like Eureka gets canned while wrestling and ghost hunting get the nod. If I ran my business like that I would be out of business very quickly. It says a lot about our society when the crap shows stay on the air to cater to the lowest denominator while really great shows get booted. My advice to you is scrap the crap and put that money into the best you can give us. Eureka needs to stay on the air not just because it’s entertaining but to show young people that smart… Read more »
Seems like Comcast and Syfy have been earning demerits in my book the last couple years. First they cancelled Caprica and Stargate Universe, then they started delaying putting their shows on Syfy.com until after the show’s current season ended (a move clearly demanded by Comcast to try and coerce fans into subscribing to cable rather than watching online), and now they’re cancelling Eureka after only a week ago saying they were renewing it. And meanwhile they crowd the rest of the schedule with dumb reality shows and horrible movies. The ironic part is all these moves seem designed to either… Read more »
What the hell comcast screw you Eureka is the best show out there
I agree with the previous comments that this is an absolutely RIDICULOUS decision on Comcast’s part. I was considering switching from DTV to Comcast, but now that they’ve called for the cancellation of Eureka — one of the most intelligent shows on TV — and that they’re the reason behind losing G4, another great channel, there definitely will NOT be a change. All of the ludicrous reality TV shows & generally crap shows that tortuously stay on year after year, and the quality shows ALWAYS seem to get cancelled. Thanks from me, too, to the cast and everyone else associated… Read more »
A commercial firm sets profit margins and doesn’t maintain products which don’t have those margins? Shameful. One would think we were actually a capitalist society! That said, I have no love for comcast (I like another viewer’s idea of not capitalizing the name to indicate scorn). Before they came into my area and took over the cable service, we residents had a wonderful cable company, with which I never had a moment’s trouble. With comcast, my very first bill was wrong; their customer service staff was rude, unprofessional, and probably lucky they hid behind telephone wires and p.o. boxes; and… Read more »
Darn Comcast… I’m glad I stopped using cable a long time ago. Did you know a spat between Comcast and DirecTV led to DirecTV no longer carrying G4, too? That network was basically geek central. I miss it. In any case, it was nice of Syfy to fight to keep ’em alive and order one more episode. I can’t believe they’d cancel the show on such short notice to the cast and crew! One episode isn’t a lot of time to tie up all the loose ends of Eureka, but it’s better than nothing. At least that doesn’t leave the… Read more »
I am very disappointed in Comcast, Eureka is an awesome series. I’m sorry to hear this. I grew up next door to Salli’s summer home in Illinois, I always knew that she would be a talented actress.
This is unwelcome news, but SyFy has a history of cancelling quality shows. Also disheartening after the news that AMC is trying to cut shows and budgets on Breaking Bad and Walking Dead. Glad to hear there will be e series finale though. Thanks for the years of entertainment to the cast and crew of Eureka.
This is the first time I have heard of a show with high viewership being cancelled. Makes no sense at all! If you want to cut the budget of a show you freeze wages or cut characters, not just flat out cancel your most popular show on the network.
Expensive or not, seems like a stupid business decision. As someone that loves Eureka, the cancellation means that I no longer have a desire to watch anything else on the network. Thus I canceled my cable TV in favor of Internet only and can now stream movies and tv via netflix. My personal message to Comcast is “You will never get my business back until you change your business model!”