TVSquad

Just when I'd added Southland to my list of shows to spotlight in upcoming editions of "Gone Too Soon," now there are glimmers of hope for its future. After NBC unceremoniously dumped it before it premiered this season, in favor of more Dateline, fans and television pundits were stunned.

Executive producer John Wells has reportedly been in contact with the cast to tell them he has at least two cable networks interested in picking up Southland. The good news comes in two ways. One, the series gets to come back. And two, a cable network is a lot less likely to tamper with the storytelling style Southland was developing in its first season. NBC already had them de-emphasizing the larger cast and the serialized nature of their storytelling in the episodes they were filming for the new season.

It's not really possible that every summer premiere on the great American broadcast TV schedule crashed and burned, is it?

But, out of all the original programs that premiered on the major networks after the completion of the fall 2008 season, not a single one got traction.

According to analysis reports, you can take your pick from any of the following shows: Defying Gravity, The Superstars, The Listener, Mental, The Philanthropist, Hitched or Ditched, Merlin and Great American Road Trip. All of them bombed -- each hovering just above a one market share.

In fact, you don't need numbers to prove that the fall crop crapped out. Ask your friend what his/her favorite summer replacement show was. You'll be waiting awhile.

On paper, Trust Me looked like a sure fire hit. I tuned in week after week to watch the show, so I consider myself a loyal viewer, but I have to be honest. The show never took off. Bob got it right in his early look, Trust Me had all the elements for something special, but it just never jelled. TNT has cancelled Trust Me after one season.

The guy in charge of TNT programming, Michael Wright, implied that a drama set in the advertising business was just a little too inaccessible for viewers. And that was the issue; not enough Nielsen numbers.

There will always be Buffy, Angel, Quantum Leap and Magnum, P.I. on my "Oh Man I Want New Episodes of These Shows" list, but what about the more recently canceled shows of the past few years? Are there any worth mourning?

Maybe not in the same way I mourn my culty loves and classic '80s shows, but there are a few worth mentioning....

Moonlight
Yep, I know, I am one of Those People -- a fan of Moonlight. Though I agree it was weak when it returned after the writer's strike, there were lots of things to love about this show: the vampire lore, the episodic mysteries, the way they could have taken the love story (had they not muffed it up in the last four episodes), the actors (Jason Dohring and Alex O'Laughlin; not Sophia Myles). I can't believe that I won't find out more of the back story with Joseph's family and Coraline.

Did your favorite show get canceled? Yeah, mine too. It makes you think twice about investing time into a new show, because you never know how long it'll last. Sometimes even shows with fairly good ratings are sent to the chopping block.

Here at TV Squad, we're doing our part to bring attention to cool shows that were axed in the recent upfront announcements. Last week, I put out a call for considerations for The Arrested Development Award, a.k.a. The Show Least Deserving of Cancellation Award.

You made your opinions known - thank you! - and now we're into Phase 2: The Nominees. The Squad will pick our own winner, but we're giving you the chance to pick a Reader's Choice winner. Here are the nominees, and be sure to vote in the poll at the bottom.

The TV Squad Awards are in full swing, and I have the pleasure of moderating The Arrested Development Award, a.k.a. The Show Least Deserving of Cancellation Award.

Since we're focusing on shows from the 2007-2008 season, that lets out a few contenders, like Veronica Mars , Firefly, and the award's namesake, Arrested Development. But there are plenty of recent shows deserving of the honor. Five that made my list:

1. Journeyman (NBC). This time-shift puzzle starring Kevin McKidd as deer-in-the-headlights Dan Vasser took a while to hook me, but by mid-season, I was there. I love shows that make you think, and although this one developed a formula (Dan saving someone who would later go on to change history), the logistics always had you scratching your head. I was sad to see it absent from NBC's Fall 08 schedule.

During my senior year of college, my friend Ken, suffering through a tough job market right after he graduated, worked as a cook in the fraternity house in which he (and I) lived his college years. As he was preparing our lunches and dinners, he'd walk into the living room, see us slumped in front of whatever crap was on daytime TV at the time, and say, "Isn't Montel on or something?"

It became a bit of an inside joke that year. But even fifteen years ago, it seemed that Montel Williams' talk show was always on. But as of the end of this season, Montel is departing the syndicated airwaves, after 17 years.

Last night, Television Critics Association president Dave Walker announced that, because of the ongoing writers' strike looks like it won't be settled any time soon, the association's winter press tour will be canceled. The tour was scheduled for January 8 - 19 at the Universal Hilton in Los Angeles.

Even though the winter tour is less extensive than the summer tour, it is a good time for the networks to give critics a mid-season "state of the network" statement and introduce the stars of their midseason shows. None of the broadcast networks could commit to presenting at the tour, and when the cable nets and PBS started pulling out, the association felt it was best to cancel outright.

Well, that was fast. After an avalanche of scathing reviews (including mine) and extremely low ratings, CBS has canceled the musical mystery drama Viva Laughlin after two episodes. According to the story on Variety's web site, the show will be replaced in its Sunday 8 PM timeslot by The Amazing Race starting November 4 (a CSI rerun will air in that slot next week). No word yet on if the remaining episodes will be shown on CBS' web site, or anywhere else for that matter.

I imagine what happened is that CBS took a look at the low ratings for the show's Thursday premiere (8.8 million viewers) and the even lower ratings for the first regular Sunday showing (a 1.2 rating and 3 share in th 18-49 demo, according to Variety), saw that the quality of the remaining episodes were not going to improve, and decided to bail out. Those are the two factors that usually lead to such quick cancellations, especially to shows that were as heavily-promoted as Laughlin was.

Usually, we don't get/need to post stuff we hear via movie blogs, but when the wonderful world of TV and film collide, strange things can happen. Over at Ain't it Cool News, Hercules posted some new Futurama footage that was shown as an introductory trailer to the four DVD films that will be produced and shown on Comedy Central. Personally, I just want new full seasons of Futurama, without the horrible thought that it might end after the 16-episode run.

The below video is pretty funny, but Family Guy did a similar joke when they came back from the dead. I have always loved it when Fox shows made fun of Fox. I am not sure if this footage will be part of the movies or not, but it looks probable. Enjoy!

Jimmy Kimmel is one of the hardest working men in show business, and that's not just some BS title. The guy works overtime on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, no matter how he feels; he even came in the day after a reaction to pain medication swelled his face so badly he couldn't open his eyes.

But even Kimmel can get knocked out by an inflamed appendix. I just got a note from Kimmel's PR rep, Lewis Kay, explaining that Kimmel had to undergo an emergency appendectomy last night, and that the remaining tapings of Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week have been canceled. "He is resting comfortably and is looking forward to getting back to work," says the statement. Knowing Jimmy, he'll try to get back to work on Monday, but I'd imagine he'll be out for at least a couple of weeks.

There has been an awful lot of talk about CBS canceling Jericho. Over at Observer-reporter.com, they've taken a hard line and decided the fault lays squarely at the feet of the network itself.

Jericho was one of the few new dramas that finished out the season. Heavy duty serials like The Nine, Vanished and Kidnapped were all cut short before reaching their finale. I, myself, was a fan of Jericho, but even I knew it's chances of renewal were slim. Personally, I feel that if the show had revealed some of it's secrets a little earlier, more viewers may have stuck around.

Even before this morning's presentation of the 2007-08 ABC fall schedule, George Lopez knew that his show wasn't going to be on it. That's because ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson, gave him the bad news over the weekend. Apparently, McPherson and ABC thought George Lopez was going to be a money loser if it got picked it up for another season. Lopez isn't buying it, as he told the LA Times today.

He not only told the newspaper that he should have gotten one more season to tie up some loose threads, but that his show outperformed other shows, like Notes from the Underbelly, that got renewed. "TV just became really, really white again," he told the Times.

Welcome to TV Squad Lists (formerly 'The Five'), a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.

No matter how much TV I watch, I can't seem to get over the first rule of television programming; if it doesn't get the numbers, it doesn't get renewed. I have watched many a beloved show get yanked from the schedule due to low ratings, even though critics and fans alike all raved about it.

Here are some examples of shows that were too good for the small screen.

Pasadena
The potential for greatness was here, sadly Fox didn't promote the show and nobody watched. I was lucky enough to watch the entire season on and finally get answers to some really nagging questions.I also got see favorites like Mark Valley & Dana Delaney really chew the scenery.

The Bob Newhart Show (the variety show on NBC)
This show won a Peabody award, but was clearly ahead of its time. It's pretty hard to find these days, but Tv icons like Ken Berry and Joe Flynn were regulars and the comedy was superb.

The axe has fallen. Well, sort of. The network still has to confirm it but many solid sources have told E! Online's Kristin Veitch that Veronica Mars would not be coming back for a fourth season.

The CW show has been struggling in ratings since its premiere on UPN. However, a good fan base helped get the show renewed up to a third season even though it moved around the schedule a bit. Many fans and TV critics were optimistic that the Gilmore Girls/Veronica Mars pairing would work well for both shows and bring in enough ratings. However, it seems it wasn't enough to secure a fourth season for this gem of a show featuring Kristen Bell.