
TV Guide is reporting that Fox has canceled Drive, the new action series starring Nathan Fillion and created by Tim Minear. Even though it's not confirmed, it's pretty obvious that this is due to dismal ratings. Drive had the old Prison Break slot, but was only getting a fraction of Prison Break's ratings. There are still two episodes left... hopefully Fox will put them up on the MySpace webpage where all the other episodes can be seen. In the meantime, repeats of House will run in that 8 pm time slot.
Sadly, this does not come as a surprise.
Brett and I were sharing reviewing duties of the shows and many of you commenters were really pulling for it to stay on the air but had little faith that it would survive. While I wasn't in love with the series, I wanted to give it some time. Hopefully someone will give an interview at some point and tell us what was going to happen!
All this makes me wonder why Fox hangs on to Tim Minear. A lot of us out there in TV Fandom know he does good stuff, but Fox continues to give him series and then quickly cancel them. I just don't understand that relationship. Minear's IMDB bio says he signed a seven-figure development deal with Fox in 2001, so I guess he's getting something out of it.














Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
4-25-2007 @ 6:25PM
Akbar Fazil said...
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I was just getting into it. Enjoying it for it's story and the popcorn level of entertainment it provided.
But yeah, I should have known it being Tim Minear and Fox I should not have gotten into it.
Maybe Nathan Fillon can come back to Lost and show up looking for Kate and have a showdown with Sawyer.
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4-25-2007 @ 6:30PM
Jennifer said...
Hell, I was surprised they didn't cancel it after the third episode, so getting four out of Fox was good.
*sigh* Same old, same old with Minear.
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4-25-2007 @ 6:31PM
Akbar Fazil said...
In fact, I think I am totally done with Fox now as a network.
-I don't watch the Simpsons anymore.
-The last 4 Family guys have sat dormant on my tivo (just haven't felt the need to watch them)
-I can't think of anything else I do watch on Fox.
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4-25-2007 @ 6:41PM
fred said...
This is retarded, yet another show being cancelled before it can build up an audience, and to put what instead?? Reruns?!!
God why isn't there anyone working at those networks that actually watches & loves TV...
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4-25-2007 @ 6:45PM
Jake said...
The reason I didn't watch is because of Fox's history canceling shows. I guess it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. That and ever since they canceled Arrested Development I refuse to pick up any new Fox shows, and will stop watching them all together when 24 leaves the airwaves.
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4-25-2007 @ 6:45PM
BigTed said...
It's too bad, but I can't say I'm surprised. While "Drive" was very well made, it wasn't really about anything worthwhile. We've seen a dozen "powerful, shadowy conspiracies" on TV dramas in the past couple of years; were we supposed to think that this one had nothing better to do than put on a road race? And we never really learned enough about any of the characters to care about what happened to them, much less whether or not they won
This show was clearly put together by a very talented group of producers, writers and actors, but the concept was never compelling enough to give it a chance to succeed.
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4-25-2007 @ 6:51PM
metz said...
TV execs repeat after me.....
If you continue to cancel every serial after 4 episodes have aired you'll never get an audience for any of them.
I know several people who decided not to watch Drive just because they were afraid they'd never see the conclusion.
I'm pretty sure I'll never start watching a new Fox show until it comes out on DVD.
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4-25-2007 @ 6:51PM
eric said...
This show is so terrible, it's not even funny. I'm glad it got canned. For one, the writing and acting is just terrible. Each episode flops around like a fish out of water. Memento made more sense than this the first time I saw it. But the thing that really pushes my buttons is that it tries to appeal to the fast and furious crowd, which again, was another crappy movie.
Good riddance, make something with some pulp Fox.
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4-25-2007 @ 7:03PM
CJ said...
I'm freaking tired of tv networks. Really, quit doing these serial tv shows if you aren't gonna finish the story. I keep waiting for Lost to be canceled juts before they reveal everything.
Whatever. I'm going to go watch some NOVA.
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4-25-2007 @ 7:08PM
Rob said...
Ahh Memento,.. that was a good movie.
I'm sorry what were we talking about?
Oh "Drive",.. now I remember,..
meh,.. it was ok, but it was no "Memento"
Ahh Memento,.. that was a good movie.
I'm sorry what were we talking about?
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4-25-2007 @ 7:13PM
indiff said...
This is a shame. The show had a lot of promise. If anyone is interested in my thoughts on Drive, a review just went up on Flak Magazine (www.flakmag.com) yesterday.
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4-25-2007 @ 7:14PM
Gwen said...
I love the show and not just because Nathan Fillion's in it. This is twice that Fox has had Nathan in a cool show and pulled the rug out. Boo!
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4-25-2007 @ 7:22PM
Carissa said...
Dammit - I really liked this show. I watched for Fillion, Minear and the hopes that Fox couldn't really be so fraking stupid to do this to yet another Minear series. WTF????? Outside of House, I hate FOX. They ALWAYS let me down. 24 and American Idol my ass, FOX!!!
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4-25-2007 @ 7:29PM
TVSeriesFinale.com said...
A shame. I enjoyed this one.
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4-25-2007 @ 7:29PM
C C said...
Although I couldn't get into Drive, I do feel bad for Tim Minear. He is one of the truly innovative writers in television, and he can't catch a break. Hopefully, he'll get his hit series down the road.
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4-25-2007 @ 7:42PM
Giza_Breck said...
What a bummer. I really liked this show. I have no idea what Memento or anything else it's supposed to be a rip off of are, so that's moot, it was just entertaining and interesting. I also liked the concept but then again I'm just an average viewer who likes to kick back and watch T.V after a hard day's work.
Picking a show to pieces or comparing it to something in the encyclopedic tome of "what's gone before" seems to be the self fulfilling death knell of nearly everything reviewed/commented by some people here.
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4-25-2007 @ 7:47PM
Bill said...
That was fast (ha!). I thought for sure they'd give it 13 episodes just on principle, since they promoted this a lot harder than previous Minnear shows.
Again though, I can't blame Fox. They cancel more innovative shows because they put more innovative shows on. If people watched them, they would last longer. That's all there is to it.
http://popculturejunk.blogspot.com/
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4-25-2007 @ 7:53PM
David said...
Damn! I said 3 weeks, not 4! Damn!
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4-25-2007 @ 8:11PM
Drew said...
Their website is saying that the last two episodes will be shown in the summer, which I most likely will be too busy to watch. I think they should kick the show over to FX and have them run with it. They can save money by cutting down on things like craft services, add a few more swear words in it, and it would fit in with the other programing on the network. What do you say, News Corp?
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4-25-2007 @ 8:20PM
hessian said...
This show was not building an audience. It scored a measley 6 share in each of its first three hours. Then dropped off to a 5 share this week.
The numbers were going in the wrong direction - and the rerun of HOUSE that aired the Monday before DRIVE premiered scored a 10 share in the same time slot.
Do the math, air a rerun that can DOUBLE the audience (one you've already paid for, by the way) - or 'stick with it' while the audience dribbles away to a 4 share next week.
Minear makes some good TV - this was not his best. As good as his best is, he's never commanded a large audience.
A 5 share might work for The CW, but it's never going to be good enough for FOX.
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