Odyssey 5 - question on ratings + reason for cancellation

[Tom Brehony]

"Odyssey 5" was cancelled by Showtime before finishing it's 1st season.
I presumed it was cancelled because it didn't get the necessary ratings,
etc.

However I read recently that it was Showtimes No. 2 show. Is this true?
How did it do ratings-wise and what was the official reason for
cancellation?

Tom.

[jayembee]

Post by Tom Brehony
"Odyssey 5" was cancelled by Showtime before finishing it's 1st season.

That depends on how technical you want to be. Sony stopped production
and dismissed the staff, claiming that Showtime declined to order any
more episodes. After this already happened, anyone who called or wrote
to Showtime was told that they hadn't decided to cancel it.

Post by Tom Brehony
I presumed it was cancelled because it didn't get the necessary ratings,
etc.
However I read recently that it was Showtimes No. 2 show. Is this true?

I don't know, but I doubt it.

Post by Tom Brehony
How did it do ratings-wise and what was the official reason for cancellation?

There is no official reason for cancellation, because, officially,
Showtime has never issued any statement to the effect that they were
cancelling it. They just stopped airing it, and hoped that people
would forget it existed. Interestingly enough, they are reairing it on
one of their subsidiary channels starting in September, and rumor
has it that this reairing will include the four eps that haven't yet
aired.

If you want my best guess as to why Showtime cancelled it...Showtime
has long had a love/hate relationship with SF. Their SF shows have
always done well for them, but they nevertheless claim that they don't
want to be known as an SF channel. So they unload or cancel their
genre series (OUTER LIMITS, POLTERGEIST, STARGATE, THE HUNGER, TOTAL
RECALL 2070), then start up new ones (like JEREMIAH and ODYSSEY 5),
then abandon those as well.

The way I figure it, Showtime is desperate for a mainstream hit, as
HBO has enjoyed with THE SOPRANOS, SEX AND THE CITY, SIX FEET UNDER,
etc., and therefore ditches their well-performing genre series in
order to go after the elusive mainstream hits. They've been reasonably
successful with QUEER AS FOLK and THE L WORD, but even those haven't
been as hot as HBO's programs.

-- jayembee

[Skua]

Post by jayembee
If you want my best guess as to why Showtime cancelled it...Showtime
has long had a love/hate relationship with SF. Their SF shows have
always done well for them, but they nevertheless claim that they don't
want to be known as an SF channel. So they unload or cancel their
genre series (OUTER LIMITS, POLTERGEIST, STARGATE, THE HUNGER, TOTAL
RECALL 2070), then start up new ones (like JEREMIAH and ODYSSEY 5),
then abandon those as well.

Yes... all perfect examples of Shotime's programming stupidity. I've
watched each of those and ended up being pissed off at Showtime for
dropping them without cause.

If Showtime doesn't want to be a Sci-Fi kind of channel... then why the
hell did they start their SHOWTIME BEYOND channel!?!?!?! As pathetic as
most of their daily programming is... their original series shows have
all been creative, interesting, and for the most part... excellent sci-fi.

The cancellations of Jeremiah and Odyssey 5 are the final kick in the
crotch.

Message to Showtime: It's too late to pull your heads out of your asses...
because you won't sucker me into watching ANY new shows on your channel.
Why? Because I know that you'll probably just can the show in the middle
anyway.

-skua-

[Ford A. Thaxton]

Post by Tom Brehony
"Odyssey 5" was cancelled by Showtime before finishing it's 1st season.
I presumed it was cancelled because it didn't get the necessary ratings,
etc.
However I read recently that it was Showtimes No. 2 show. Is this true?
How did it do ratings-wise and what was the official reason for
cancellation?
Tom.

Word on the street is that someone high up the food chain at SHOWTIME just
didn't like the show (or the producers) and decided to BURY IT.

Which they pretty much did.

That's show business.





Ford A. Thaxton (***@aol.com)

[KazamaSmokers]

Post by Ford A. Thaxton

Post by Tom Brehony
"Odyssey 5" was cancelled by Showtime before finishing it's 1st season.
I presumed it was cancelled because it didn't get the necessary ratings,
etc.
However I read recently that it was Showtimes No. 2 show. Is this true?
How did it do ratings-wise and what was the official reason for
cancellation?
Tom.

Word on the street is that someone high up the food chain at SHOWTIME just
didn't like the show (or the producers) and decided to BURY IT.
Which they pretty much did.
That's show business.

Holeeee crap... Ford again walks among us. I feel like David Balfour
getting a glimpse of Ebenezer.

[Ford A. Thaxton]

Post by KazamaSmokers
Holeeee crap... Ford again walks among us. I feel like David Balfour
getting a glimpse of Ebenezer.

Or proves you need to get a life if that is something that causes you such
excitment.



Ford A. Thaxton (***@aol.com)

[KazamaSmokers]

Post by Ford A. Thaxton

Post by KazamaSmokers
Holeeee crap... Ford again walks among us. I feel like David Balfour
getting a glimpse of Ebenezer.

Or proves you need to get a life if that is something that causes you such
excitment.

Ford, I say it with much sincere affection. You are the Shirtless
Randy to our collective Trailer Park, the Inspector Scanlon to our
12th Precinct, the Colonel Flagg in our little Swamp.

The Ann Risley to our collective 30-years-of-SNL-cast-members.

RASfT, etc, is not as colorful or bizarre when you are on sabatical.

((sniff)) ItoldmyselfIwasn'tgoingtodothis.....

[Black]

The ratings for Odyssey 5 were better than the first two seasons of Stargate
SG-1 when it was on Showtime. It came down to Showtime deciding to go in a
new direction that did not include Odyssey 5.

Sony dismissed the cast and crew and broke down the sets. Ratings were not
an issue in the decision.

scifi
scifi2k.com

Post by Tom Brehony
"Odyssey 5" was cancelled by Showtime before finishing it's 1st season.
I presumed it was cancelled because it didn't get the necessary ratings,
etc.
However I read recently that it was Showtimes No. 2 show. Is this true?
How did it do ratings-wise and what was the official reason for
cancellation?
Tom.

[Jimvanhise]

Actually, at the time it was canceled, Joe Straczynski indicated that the
producers of Odyssey 5 wanted a lot more money for season 2 because of the
excellent ratings for season 1, but Showtime chose not to give in and canceled
the show instead. Basically after one year the producers made the kind of
demands one usually doesn't make until a show has had at least 3 top rated
seasons. I've noticed that Showtime has started rerunning Odyssey 5, but
haven't heard whether the unaired episodes will turn up.

[pv+ (Paul Vader)]

Post by Jimvanhise
Actually, at the time it was canceled, Joe Straczynski indicated that the
producers of Odyssey 5 wanted a lot more money for season 2 because of the

What does JMS have to do with Odyssey 5? Are you confusing it with
Jeremiah? *

[jayembee]

Post by pv+ (Paul Vader)

Post by Jimvanhise
Actually, at the time it was canceled, Joe Straczynski
indicated that the producers of Odyssey 5 wanted a lot
more money for season 2 because of the

What does JMS have to do with Odyssey 5? Are you confusing
it with Jeremiah? *

I didn't get the feeling that Jim was implying that JMS was
connected with O5, just that JMS was relating something he
heard, undoubtedly through the grapevine.

-- jayembee

[Corwin2]

Did you see the (MTV?) skit where Jack Black was Spider-Man and he
kept rejecting costume designs?

Same reason.

Post by Tom Brehony
"Odyssey 5" was cancelled by Showtime before finishing it's 1st season.
I presumed it was cancelled because it didn't get the necessary ratings,
etc.
However I read recently that it was Showtimes No. 2 show. Is this true?
How did it do ratings-wise and what was the official reason for
cancellation?

Not gay enough.

[Ray Gardner]

Post by Tom Brehony
"Odyssey 5" was cancelled by Showtime before finishing it's 1st season.
I presumed it was cancelled because it didn't get the necessary ratings,
etc.
However I read recently that it was Showtimes No. 2 show. Is this true?
How did it do ratings-wise and what was the official reason for
cancellation?
Tom.

From Sci Fi Weekly (http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue297/news.html)

Odyssey 5 Canceled?
Showtime has canceled its SF drama Odyssey 5, according to a post on
the rec.arts.sf.TV newsgroup. The post cites an e-mail from an unnamed
member of the show's production staff, who writes, "Alas, Showtime
canceled Odyssey this week, despite our being their highest-rated
original series! Apparently the powers that be want to get out of
doing SF (they picked up Jeremiah, as I understand it, because it's
part of a long-standing deal with MGM)."

The e-mail added, "Sony/Columbia has approached the SCI FI Channel
about picking it up, but we won't know anything until January. For now
it's just a lump of coal in our Christmas stockings."

The pay cable network hasn't made an official announcement about the
freshman series' fate yet. Six original episodes remain to be aired in
the series' first season.
_________________________________________________________

And this one, from a later issue
(http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue302/news.html)

Odyssey Looks For Home
Odyssey 5 may be searching for a new home, as Showtime has decided not
to renew the freshman series, sources told The Hollywood Reporter.
Sony Pictures Television, which produces the show, is reportedly
shopping the series around.

Starring Peter Weller (RoboCop), Odyssey 5 was Showtime's second
highest-rated series, behind Soul Food, and its top series draw in key
male demographics and with adults 25-54, the trade paper reported.
_________________________________________________________

Both the above articles just illustrate how the cancellation of O5 was
probably the biggest slap in the face of 2002. Unlike Firefly, O5 WAS
a success for the network that paid for it. And unlike Farscape, O5
wasn't even given a 2nd season (let alone a 3rd or 4th) to further
explore its premise. I personally think it was the best new show of
2002 (vastly superior than the overwrought and corny Jeremiah), with a
really good built-in 5 year arc. After seeing the unaired US
episodes, I could see that there was some GOOOOOD stuff in the cards
for the series. But Showtime, in its quest for "mainstream"
acceptance, killed the show for no good damn reason. Just like they
stupidly gave away both The Outer Limits AND Stargate SG-1 (and we all
know how the Stargate franchise pretty much turned around the SciFi
channel).

Now, nearly 2 years after Showtime last aired a new episode, they plan
to air the final 6 episodes of Odyssey 5. Who knows, though -- if
there's enough interest and ratings, it could justify a revival of
some sort for the series. Family Guy, Farscape, and Firefly have all
survived their abrupt cancellations, so let's get together and
convince Showtime that there's still lots of life left in the series.
I'm sure that Manny Coto still wants to bring this story to an end at
some point. And, after the season finale, I want to see it brought to
an end myself. What a cliffhanger!

--Ray
www.theseekeronline.com