Moonlight: Fans Mount Campaigns to Save the CBS Vampire Detective Series

In February, CBS gave early renewals for eleven of the network’s popular series. One cult favorite missing from the list was the freshman romantic series Moonlight. The series had been performing decently on Friday nights but, because of the writers strike, there haven’t been any new episodes in months. The network is producing four new episodes for this season and will begin airing April 25th. Before giving the go-ahead for season two, CBS likely wants to see if anyone remembers the series.

Fans of the vampire series aren’t waiting to see if the cancellation axe falls before starting campaigns to save it. “Operation: Renew Moonlight” kicked off yesterday and the folks from three fan sites aren’t April Fooling around. They’ve united to encourage fans to fill out a campaign form and send it along with a clove of garlic to Nina Tassler, the president of CBS. Check out Moonlight-United.com for more information.

In another effort, fans wanting to draw attention to the series are teaming up with the Red Cross and YouChoose.net for a weeklong blood drive. The campaign plans have impressed series star Alex O’Loughlin enough to become a spokesman for the Red Cross.

The “Blood Drive to Save Moonlight Campaign” will be held from April 18th through April 27th (corresponding with the start of new episodes) in cities like Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia. There are over 4,000 pledges to date and fans are being invited to donate their time, blood or cash to support the effort and the Red Cross. Blood drive participants will be given a special t-shirt as a thank-you. For more information, head on over to MoonlightBloodDrive.org.

CBS announces their 2008-09 schedule in May so we should know if the fans’ hard work has paid off by then. Stay tuned!