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The Moonlight Goes Out
Alex O'Loughlin in Moonlight by Cliff Lipson/CBS
I’ll admit it. I’m floored. I was wrong. I was naïve. I drank the bloody Kool-Aid and started thinking like a fan (even though I always had my critical reservations). Up until last weekend, when the prognostications started turning sour, I truly thought CBS would give its cult romantic-mystery vampire drama Moonlight a long leash and a chance to work out its kinks—the narrative ones, that is; the kinkiness of the vampire romance was actually working—with a second-season renewal, or even a midseason backup order.
But no, they went and put a stake in Mick St. John, who as played by the charismatic Alex O’Loughlin had arguably the greatest potential for breakout buzz of any freshman-series character this season (and yes, I’m including the nubile fleshpots of Gossip Girl in this statement). My initial reaction, beyond despair at the thought of the unforgivingly bitter and relentlessly anguished mail that’s starting to arrive in my mailbag, was: Did CBS learn nothing from Jericho? And then I pondered: Well, maybe they did. They brought Jericho back, and despite massive media hype over that nearly unprecedented resurrection, it was a dud.
The circumstances are a bit different here, but the shows shared a few crucial roadblocks to success. Both Jericho and Moonlight were disrupted midway through their first seasons: Jericho by a misguided programming strategy that took the show off the air from November to February, stalling its momentum; Moonlight by the writers’ strike, which damaged network TV across the board. They aired in tough time periods: Jericho in the challenging lead-off Wednesday position, and in its comeback, in the Tuesday at 10 pm/ET death slot, while Moonlight struggled on Fridays as most shows do on the night. Both are what’s known as “off-brand,” experiments in serialized and genre formats for a network that finds its greatest success in traditional crime dramas and classic-style sitcoms.
It doesn’t help that CBS isn’t a producer of Moonlight (a Warner Bros production) the way it was for Jericho (from CBS/Paramount). The business side of the equation was no doubt also affected by all of the backstage turbulence on a show that bled show-runners as if an actual curse was in place. (Explains a recent Variety article: “It's understood that Eye execs were not impressed with the show's creative development, and there was much drama and turnover behind the scenes among producers and scribes and tussling between the network and studio over budgetary issues. The final straw was the show's sagging ratings perf during the past few weeks after its post-strike return.”)
Whatever the reasons—and why argue them; a show like this is always a crapshoot for a mainstream network—this goes down in my book as the most disappointing cancellation of the season. And again, for the record, I’m not even completely sold on the show, though as I recently argued in my Review column, it had plenty of potential and a star who’s an absolute keeper. (Not to mention a passionate fan base that literally gave blood to raise Moonlight awareness.)
So what are the odds that Mick will rise from the dead, in classic vamp fashion? Pretty steep, I’d think. No other broadcast network is likely to step in to save it—not even the CW, which at least has a corporate connection. (The CW being already satiated with genre programming like Smallville, Supernatural and the just-renewed Reaper.) Cable? Probably too expensive, even for Sci Fi—and fans are still smarting over that channel’s handling of The Dresden Files. But I’d be foolish to ever say never. Look what happened to Jericho, at least for a while.
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May 14, 2008 10:43 AM
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Yeah, this was seriously disappointing. I didn't think that Moonlight was the Best.Show.Ever or anything, but it held pretty steady ratings, won its timeslot pretty consistently, and had a seriously passionate and highly-motivated fan base. The show deserved a second season. CBS made the wrong call, and I hope they get overwhelmed with angry fans complaining.
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May 14, 2008 11:29 AM
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Matt - I drank the Kool-Aid, too. Moonlight had some issues but as the season went on, it was hard to ignore the appeal of Alex O'Loughlin and Jason Dohring, whom I loved on Veronica Mars. This was one of my favorite shows and I often found myself watching it live to see what happened rather than wait for my Tivo. Anyway, I'm becoming increasingly disillusioned with network TV. Outside of Moonlight, there are very few shows I regularly watch other than 30 Rock and The Office. I find myself opting for shows on SciFi, USA, BBC America and DirecTV come Fall (FNL, of course!!) These networks seem to give their shows a fair chance to develop and take risks more than the traditional networks. I realize the decisions come down the the bottom line - money - but I have very little reason to watch the traditional neworks right now and one less now that Moonlight is cancelled. As a matter of fact, I have no reason to watch CBS at all now.
Keep up the great job. You're my favorite on TV Guide because of your insightful and interesting opinions and overall passion to TV viewing.
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May 14, 2008 11:39 AM
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I'm terribly sad to see them cancel Moonlight. I really believed CBS was renewing the show with all the publicity and promoting only to let the fans down. I agree although the genre is not for all audiences neither are reality shows and sitcoms. It seems that all networks are competing for this type of programing and I'm disheartened.
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May 14, 2008 11:59 AM
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Just when Friday nights became a bit more bearable with Moonlight to look forward to, they cancell it? Nooooo! We should pick up our torches and storm the castle that is CBS headquarters, and tell them we are mad as hell, etc etc.
This was a great little show, with good sized audience, so with the wisdom that is only bestowed on those with little brains, they decide to cancel!!
If only another network would pick up Moonlight and reap the rewards of its grateful fans.
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May 14, 2008 11:59 AM
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Matt, I, too, was stunned with the cancellation announcement. Yesterday, I shed tears. Today, I'm pissed.
I was sure the signs pointed to a renewal. CBS updated ML's page; they even added a message board for the fans. While CBS fell short on their publicity efforts for ML in the fall of '07, I felt they really did a better job this spring. Heck, I even read that they plan to show ML re-runs 'til July. CBS really screwed up by letting Alex slip throught their fingers.
I pray ML will be picked up by another network. I'll follow it to any new channel, new night, new time slot.
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May 14, 2008 12:38 PM
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the cancelling of Moonlight certainly confirms to all that the fans mean nothing to the network, it's all an internal fight amongst executives and as usual the viewer loses
sad but true
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May 14, 2008 12:38 PM
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I am brokenhearted!!!!! I loooooovvvve this show! I can not believe they didn't give this show a chance!!! I have been waiting for 2 weeks for this announcement and now wish I had never heard it!!
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May 14, 2008 12:59 PM
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Thank you Matt for that article. We fans are devastated. And feel let down by network for which we did the most job of promoting the show.
I agree that they learn lesson with Jericho. And if we would not have Jericho before us, we might had a chance to fight it. Now, they are not going to cave in a second time. You are right, this is most disappointing cancellation this year. With such a great charismatic actor as Alex, this show had a potential to become a really great. I don’t want to make Jason or any other actor on the show less important, they are all great and I absolutely love them. But I am sure that most of the 8 million viewers were coming back every Friday to see Alex O’Loughlin as Mick St. John. Nobody knew who he was before. And he still was able to capture hearts and souls of so many. I hope that other networks seeing what a phenomenon Alex is. I am fan of his for life. And I will go any were Moonlight will go.
Good by CBS. I love your CSI's and Numbers, I really do. But you really pissed me off by canceling this little show of ours.
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May 14, 2008 1:03 PM
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What a bunch of dopes over at CBS! I'm very seriously considering giving up on watching that network completely. Several times over the past years they've axed shows with decent fan bases and cancelled them without ever giving them a decent start! Now Moonlight is gone, plus they're commiting suicide by putting The Unit on Sundays. It was just fine where it was on Tues. after NCIS. It fit like a glove following that show. Now they're going to screw up that show too!! Just when you think they can't screw things up enough by canceling Jericho among other good shows, they prove they can get even more stupid! They've canceled good shows and a lot of them got screwed because of that darn writer's strike. I'm for what the writers wanted, but why take it out on new shows that got screwed because of the strike. Now they're threatening to cancel Shark too. Real soon CBS isn't going to be worth the time of day. Why don't you cancel the CSI shows too? You might as well, since your axing other good shows!!
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May 14, 2008 1:05 PM
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As I posted over on Ausiello about New Amsterdam, reading this news was a real disappointment. Both shows were, IMO, the best new shows of the stunted writer's strike season. Both dealt with issues of immortality, but in very different ways.
Where New Amsterdam masterfully looked into how an immortal would deal with an ever-growing huge family tree (especially the shocker to viewers that Omar was his son), Moonlight gave us not only some pretty nifty twists on vampirism, it explored things on a more romantic level: what it's like for a vampire and human to deal with love, perhaps the most complex, volatile emotion on the planet.
I actually liked Miles as Beth and loved O'Loughlin as Mick. They had some of the best on-screen chemistry of the season.
Luckily, I understand Friday night's cliffhanger "season" finale serves, somewhat as a "series" finale. Still, it would have been nice to get to see these characters grow (yes, even after age 90, Mick's still growing) -- and I will miss Dohring's portrayal of Josef.
Ah, sweet Moonlight, we hardly knew ye.
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May 14, 2008 1:13 PM
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I'm just as naive. I thought the second season was in the bag - assuring Chicken Little fans all over the place -and was wondering how I'd make it three months. Well, the sky has fallen and now I'm wondering how can I ever make it forever.
Matt, is there any shot at the MRC group picking it up for the Sunday night slot on the CW? And isn't there a gap Fridays at 9 p.m. on the CW, too? Any answers you can get would soothe my sad, sad soul....
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May 14, 2008 1:20 PM
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“It is SO on!” - Josef Kostan “Fated to Pretend”
For Moonlight fans, this was supposed to be our mantra for Season Two. However, CBS has chosen not to renew Moonlight. This breaks my undead heart! I hope that another network and Warner Brothers can come to an eleventh hour agreement to keep the most original show on television.
But, the fat vampire has yet to sing (oops apologies to Mr. Silver!)
Thanks, Matt, for your support.
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May 14, 2008 1:27 PM
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I hope it comes back, i really do. It wasnt a perfect show but it has a great cast and amazing lead
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May 14, 2008 1:32 PM
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Here's my question: you have only to look at the front page of your own tvguide.com -- never was there a Spotlight, Breaking News, show blog, popular tv show page for Moonlight--yet Gossip Girl, touted as a popular tv show, only gets 2.2 million viewers. That's almost FOUR TIMES fewer than Moonlight! How does GG qualify as a more popular show?
I've noticed this across the board on entertainment websites and magazines. Apparently CBS was too cheap to PAY for the kind of 'coverage' that keeps shows on the air.
After this cancellation, I'm sticking to UK television. I've had it with the US networks.
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May 14, 2008 1:33 PM
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