Fans of the Motive TV show won’t find the series on the ABC schedule this summer. The US network has decided to drop the Canadian police drama after two seasons.
Motive revolves around a strong-willed Vancouver detective (Kristin Lehman) who’s also a single mom. At the start of each episode, viewers are shown the killer and victims. As the criminal investigation progresses, details of what led to the crime are revealed via flashbacks. The rest of the cast includes Louis Ferreira, Lauren Holly, Roger Cross, Brendan Penny, and Cameron Bright.
Produced in Canada, ABC licensed the show to air in the US during the summer months. Though it has some devout fans, the series’ ratings were pretty poor. The first season attracted an average of a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 4.96 million viewers. Last summer’s second season drew a 0.8 rating with 4.07 million.
While ABC has “cancelled” the series here in the States, the show will continue to air in Canada. It was renewed for a third season in May 2014 and those episodes are currently running on CTV. The network has just announced that Motive has been picked up for a fourth season and will resume production in the fall.
It is possible that another US channel could pick up the series since licensing a show costs much less than producing original programming of their own. Cable channel ION picked up imports The Listener and Flashpoint after they were dropped by NBC and CBS respectively.
What do you think? Do you like the Motive TV show? Should ABC have dropped it? Would you watch seasons three and four on another channel?
I have been waiting all year for this show and just found out that it will not air in the US. I’m very disappointed!
I had been looking forward to the return of “Motive.” It had become a summer thing for me. Warmer weather and some shows on TV that required thought went together. Motive is well written and well acted. Why ABC would think US audiences don’t deserve the same quality of TV as they aire in Canada? We have plenty of mindless sitcoms.
My hope now is another channel will have the sense to aire this upcoming season and the fourth season as well!
I loved Motive – so sorry to hear ABC isn’t picking it up this year. This might be the time I finally start using Netflix!
I am so disappointed!!!! I tried to watch the episodes on the Canadian TV website but they would not air in America. I hope a station picks up the series. Or at least hope it is available on Amazon, Hulu or Netfix.
Bad decision ABC.
I love this show. I watch each episode several times for all the hidden humor, comments etc. Very good acting.
MY HUSBAND AND I LOVED THIS SHOW — WAS VERY UNIQUE. I HOPE SOMEONE BRINGS IT BACK OR PUTS ON NETFLIX OR DVD FOR US TO ACCESS.
Sad to see Motive go. I was looking forward to watching it this summer. Hope it is picked up by ION so that I can continue to view it.
Loved this show, very sad to hear it won’t be returning to ABC. ABC did not do it justice, absolutely no advertising, no support, they moved it around making it hard to find. This is a great show, great stories, cast, etc. I missed the first few episodes each season because ABC didn’t advertise, at least that I saw. Glad to hear it can be found on YouTube, I’m hoping that I can find it on netflix as I don’t get to use our tablet often and would much rather see it on a larger screen.
So sad to hear of the cancellation, would watch it on another network. So looked forward to watching it during the summer months.
Very disappointed this is not being picked up in the U. S. Quality show all around — would definitely watch if pciked up. Glad to hear 4th season is Canada is going on.
This was a unique and captivating series. The interactive aspect made it a great series to follow.
….and the acting was great…the chemistry between the two detectives was fun to watch
Would watch on another channel
Was looking forward to another season. Really disappointed to hear it has been cancelled. Hopefully some other station will pick it up.
I loved this show. I would watch it on another channel for however many seasons they would film.
I’m so sad!!! I loved Motive and was really looking forward to watching! Is there any way to watch the series on the internet?
It’s on youtube – search for Motive Season 3 – looks like all the episodes are there except the last one, which I don’t think has aired yet.
Yes there is a way to watch Motive go to either of these channels online ” one channel, tubeplus, icefilms, and freeprojecttv…
And no this not a bot.