At the start of today’s television press tour session, CBS president Nina Tassler announced something that we’ve all known for months. Swingtown isn’t coming back for a second season.
Swingtown follows three Chicago families in 1970s era suburbia as they explore new freedoms and shifting moral values. The series stars performers like Molly Parker, Jack Davenport, Grant Show, Lana Parrilla, Josh Hopkins, Miriam Shor, Shanna Collins, Aaron Christian Howles, Brittany Robertson, Michael Rady, Nick Benson, and Kate Norby.
The series was initially scheduled to debut during the regular 2007-08 season but the premiere was delayed until Summer 2008. Critical and viewer reception for Swingtown was mixed and the pilot debuted to fewer than 8.6 million viewers and a 2.5/7 rating/share in the 18-49 demographic. Subsequent episodes’ ratings dropped from there. After seven episodes, CBS moved Swingtown to Friday nights where viewership plunged to a low of 2.82 million.
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Though the series’ ratings were too low to warrant a season two renewal on the network, the CBS studio tried to find another home for Swingtown. In the end, the best they could do was to make a deal with Bravo to rerun the first season. Execs for the cable net made it clear however that they weren’t interested in funding a second season.
In November, Show told TV Guide, “Yeah, unfortunately [it’s over]. I mean, they haven’t released me and they haven’t made any official statements yet, but our contracts are all up in December. They’d have to have us back working before then, and I don’t think it’s possible to do that.”
Tassler has long been an advocate for the series and initially gave Swingtown a greenlight. Today, she made the show’s fate official when she announced, “No, we’re not going back to Swingtown. We were extremely proud of the execution — [it] ended up on a half dozen top 10 lists in 2008.”
She continued, “At the end of the day the show was well executed, it was well received, the performances were great, the writing was great. It was a risk, we took it, and we’re proud of it.” The exec blamed the show’s performance, at least in part, to the writers strike.
Unfortunately, there’s been no talk of giving the series an ending of some kind. Does the show need one?
Image courtesy CBS.
Man, this is a shame, CBS was just getting back to having good shows again. Its going to be a real loss to see this one go. CBS needs to rethink this move. We need more shows like this. They remind us of better times, when things were not to stressful, it was a nice hr long escape.
I probably haven’t watched CBS for the past 12 years. Flipping through the channels one night I saw a promo for SWINGTOWN, I was hooked INSTANTLY. The music, the fashions, the interiors, the hairstyles…. it was wonderful. I planned my week around it and I didn’t miss an episode and if I did, I watched on CBS.com the following night. It was phenomenal!! At least one of the writers HAD to have lived the story in “real life”, there’s no way in Hell the writers could pull this out of thin air. The overall look, feel and quality of the… Read more »
A real shame CBS didn’t stick with this one for at least another season. I sympathize with fellow boomers sick of mindless violence and crappy reality shows. No wonder most of us “adults” are devoting more time to DVDs and ever less to network TV.
They left the show up in the air. It needs to be finished up!! What happens with Susan and her husband. I loved this show!! What a disappointment!!
As we recall there were a lot of lose ends to this show that had not been tied up. How do you just cancel a show such as Swingtown without slowly letting down its audience. My wife and I fell ” cut off at the legs ” about this show. I didn’t recall anyone ever saying anything negative about any of the episodes, and as for us… well, we couldn’t get enough. I was born in the 70’s and can recall so many of the props the show uses, along with the characters hair styles, cloths, and hideous choices of… Read more »
BRING IT BACK……GAVE US A PLACE TO ESCAPE TO FOR AN HOUR A WEEK
Bored Housewife
I miss Swingtown soooo much. I’ve never looked forward to a t.v. show in my entire life, but this one was enlightening. At the ending of every show I was squirming about the next episode, I couldn’t wait. I was like a kid on Space Mountain at Disney every Friday night or Sat. (tivo) .
I was completely heartbroken when I found out it was over. They should have at least finished the season, reguardless, I feel it was a terrible move to cancel.
Please bring back Swingtown!!!!!!
This is a great show. Fun to watch. I looked forward to this show. Friday was a bad time slot for a show like this. It is an adult show that should have been put on at 10:00 pm on another week day. Great acting and writing.
Crying shame to see this cancelled. Interesting, well-written, with complex characters. CBS, you buried this on Friday night. What did you expect the ratings to do? A great show for babyboomers. Should have given it a better chance. No wonder cable is kicking your butt.
I got rid of my TV a few years back and have not regretted it. However, I will still occasionally check out shows that I’ve heard good things about via Netflix or BitTorrent. This show is pretty awesome so far, with a great soundtrack to boot. Seriously, WTF is CBS thinking? This seems to be just another nail in the coffin for network television. I don’t understand why a show can’t be on for at least a full season before being canceled, especially if the marketing for it stinks. You CBS execs are a bunch of idiots.
Grieving the death of another favorite pastime… While many people wonder how someone could become so involved in the unfolding drama of fictional characters, I ask, how could you not? Swingtown, the 70’s set drama that was plump with nostalgia, captivating story lines, sublime acting and exquisite character development has been cancelled. In the past CBS seems to have been willing to take a chance on several new series with fresh perspective and original ideas, yet time and again, at the first display of resistance or hurdle they cower and surrender faith. Like so many series before it, CBS pulled… Read more »
WHEN WILL THEY LEARN? 1. STOP putting on, moving, preempting, putting back on shows and expecting them to develop a following. WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO CHASE A SHOW WE LIKE. PUT IT ON, LEAVE IT ON, AND GIVE IT A MINIMUM OF 10-13 UNINTERRUPTED WEEKS, OR DON’T BOTHER 2. give us a minimum of 26 brand new episodes EVER SINGLE YEAR. We don’t like seeing 13 episodes 4 freakin’ times before we get new ones, AND we don’t like watching 13 episodes twice and then WAITING 6 FREAKIN MONTHS EITHER! 3. CONTINUE NOT GIVING US WHAT WE WANT… Read more »
My heart just broke as I looked to see when Swingtown was going to return and seen it had been canceled. I looked forward each week to watch it. Please CBS finish it out even with a movie ,although I would rather the series.
U BUNCH OF IDIOTS!!!!!!!, BEST DAMN SHOW IN 20 YEARS. U CAN TAKE UR MILLOINS AND SHUV UP UR #$%. CBS SUCKS ANYWAYS GET A BRAIN!!!
Just like everyone else, I was looking forward to season 2 of Swingtown. I fell in love with the characters of this show over the summer, and really wanted to see what was going to happen next after the finally. I truly believe that the execs at CBS are making a big mistake by cancelling this wonderfully unique and well made show.