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(ABC/Raymond Liu)
ABC cancelled four series last week, and now Craig Erwich, President of ABC Entertainment and Hulu Originals, is revealing the reasoning behind dropping Rebel, For Life, American Housewife, and Mixed-ish.
Erwich said the following about the cancellation of the four shows, per Deadline:
“They are all unique shows who on their own specific timeline where they are creatively and with the audience. I can say that just because we are not ordering new seasons does not take anything away from the impact that these shows had creatively or how many fans they have on ABC. These are difficult business decisions but we are really proud of the runs that all of these shows had.”
As for Rebel, Erwich did speak about that series directly. The series was canceled after airing just four episodes. Katey Sagal, Erin Brockovich and Krista Vernoff all spoke out after the Thursday night series was cancelled. Erwich said the following about the still airing ABC series:
“Krista Vernoff is not just an amazing talent, she is a valued and beloved part of the Disney family. We gave Rebel a really considerable launch and a launch effort. It was a huge priority for us for midseason. One of the advantages of a stable schedule is, you can focus and platform new shows, which Rebel was a beneficiary of Unfortunately, it did not garner the audience that we needed it to do, so we had to make that decision.”
For Life is being shopped to other outlets, and the same could happen for Rebel.
What do you think? Do you wish ABC had kept these four shows for next season? Would you watch any of them on new homes if they are saved?
Appears that the network had neither the courage nor the foresight to give Rebel a chance. Hope someone else picks it up – a really well done show!
Please reconsider cancelling REBEL. It gets better every week and the cast is awesome! There’s so much potential for future story lines to tackle real life issues people care about. Can’t believe you’re pulling the plug so soon! Trim the fat elsewhere ABC! Please!!
Loved for life..it’s a story of injustice with human emotions and feelings..it shows what a person can do for themselves while in prison ..hopefully the show will continue on another channel…big mistake to cancel the show..
I will miss all of these shows no matter where they land next. They are wonderful shows. I can’t believe you canceled them!!!
Save Rebel on some network. You don’t build an audience in four weeks. The show is amazing and far better than most shows on tv
I was extremely saddened to hear that 3 of the 4 are shows canceled, I watch. I don’t think that you gave Rebel a chance, For Life was very tense show, would get so engrossed in that show, Mix-ish was my show to just laugh and forget all the crap happening in this world. REALLY PRAY AND HOPE that you guys will reconsider.
Thank you,
Maria B
Calif.
I will miss Mixed-ish. I enjoyed the characters and it went so well with Black-ish.
I love Mixed-ish I’m pissed it got canceled
Never watched it, I do like grown-ish and stopped watching black-ish yrs ago.
To say I’m pissed is an understatement. Maybe the president of ABC should be cancelled. I watch all those shows and definitely would watch if another station picks them up like they did with Last Man Standing another good show that ABC cancelled. They keep on crappy reality shows and not shows that have good story telling. For goodness sakes give these shows a chance especially For Life and Rebel. No proper send off, they kept is hanging
I definitely would watch For Life! Great cast and show.
As with any new show it takes a little time to get interested in them. We have come to really enjoy REBEL and very sorry to see it go. There are very few shows today with that kind of quality speaking to that kind of issues so it’s sad to see them go.
Only one of those shows I cared about was American Housewife, and honestly if not this year, next year would have been it. With the two oldest kids growing up and moving on to higher education, it would have made the show much smaller and harder to carry. Without Katy’s original 2 girlfriends, the show fell in viewership as well.
I agree.. It should have come back for one more season. It would have been nice to see if Oliver got into Harvard and Taylor getting married. Shame on ABC
Don’t forget she was pregnant at the end of this season. Whole new challenges ahead.
We loved Rebel it was a great show!! So sad to see that it was canceled. I hope it comes back on another channel we will watch if we can’t be there to watch Rebel we always tape it.
Every one of those shows was better than “The Bachelor” or “American Idol”.
You are probably correct. I have never watched American Idol, but I did watch one episode of The Bachelor, and what a piece of junk that show is. Reality shows in general are NOT REALLY REALITY! But they are definitely cheaper for the networks to make, so I guess that is what we get. Sadly.
So agree
You are correct. Rebel was a great show and got better with each episode. And what a great cast. Yet, the mind numbing reality shows come back season after season. I hope Rebel gets picked up by another, more intelligent channel than ABC.
With continual racial injustice and Black Lives Matter as well as the quality of For Life, I think ABC is misguided.
I HOPE that another outlet will pick up this show as there is more to be seen and said on racial injustice!!
I was really getting into REBEL. I have never thought they gave new shows a chance. They don’t air them long enough for some viewers to find them. I have not seen a lot of advert for the show either. So i don’t think it was given much of a chance.
If it wasnt for my dvr, I wouldnt have known when the show was on, CONTINUITY makes the viewerswant to watch. Well scripted and well acted. Please review the ratings after all the episodes have aired.
Sadly you’re correct. Shows get 3 episodes tops to be a hit right then or they’re cancelled
i’m sure (without doing any research) that they gave other shows more of a chance to succeed then they did with Rebel, they should’ve considered giving it a different night to succeed, maybe try tuesday night at 9 before big sky, or monday at 9 before the good doctor, or if all else fails, try anytime on wednesday , anything is better for ABC then what they put on against nbc chicago wednesday.