News broke on Friday that FOX had decided to cancel its fan-favorite show Lucifer, and all Hell has broken loose since that occurred. I considered that one a decent prospect for renewal because its ratings were’t that bad and the fans had put out a monumental effort on the social network to support the show in the last months of the season. But FOX does not own the show, it is a Warner Bros. production, and networks are moving toward at least partial ownership these days to keep the profits closer to home. The network announced the the cancellation Friday morning and fans immediately took to the social networks to prove that the series has millions of supporters worldwide. The hashtag #SaveLucifer trended high all day on Friday, eventually reaching over one million postings and a top ranking worldwide. On Saturday, fans started up the hashtag #PickupLucifer which took off as well and trended at Number 1 (I don’t have the final numbers on that one yet). Warner Bros. would be foolish not to try and find a different venue for the show, and the most obvious landing place is its own upcoming streaming service DCUniverse. That launches later this year with a live-action Titans series plus a return of the animated Young Justice (another fan-favorite saved by a strong outpouring of support). Lucifer is only about thirty episodes from the threshold that could get it a lucrative syndication sale, so financially it makes sense for Warner Bros. to keep the show going. In the meantime, the fans have not slowed their efforts and will continue to make their presence known until the studio does right by the show.
The other heartbreaking cancellation that came last week was Syfy’s decision to drop The Expanse after its third season. That one is currently considered the best science fiction show on television right now by many and has drawn comparisons to classics like the reboot of Battlestar: Galactica and Firefly. Syfy’s arrangement with the show apparently only brings revenue to the network based on advertising during the live broadcasts (I assume digital is included in that as well), and the ratings have just not been good enough they claim. The show’s production company Alcon Entertainment Group is shopping it around to other venues, and fans have taken to the social networks with the #SaveTheExpanse hashtag to show their support and lobby Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and more to pick it up for a fourth season and beyond. An online petition was launched which has already amassed over 16K signatures in just a few days, and the numbers continue to rise for that. A tweet-storm is planed for this coming Wednesday when the next new episode airs (follow Johnny Jay’s Twitter feed for more info on that), and fans will keep fighting for this show to assure the it continues to bring us the adventures of the crew of the Rocinante.
Someone has to save Lucifer! It’s an awesome show. By the way, there is also a petition at change.org to get Lucifer picked up, which is close to 80,000 signatures after less than two days.
I’m thoroughly disgusted by Fox’s decision to cancel Lucifer. It seems the network had it in for the show from the beginning of the third season. They put the opening at a bad time, cancelled many episodes for “specials” and generally thumbed their noses at the many, many fans who really loved the show. I’ve learned the power of reviews. We should all roast Fox