Many are still sorely disappointed that the CW decided to pull Veronica Mars off the air. However, the network’s Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff has moved on, telling reporters during the TCA summer press tour that she does not regret canceling the teen drama series, which starred Kristen Bell as a skilled teen detective.
“I can honestly sit here and say I can not look back and have any regrets [about canceling it],” Ostroff said. “I feel that we gave Veronica Mars every chance and as many of you here know, there was no stronger champion of that show than me. We gave it a better time slot to follow up every single year that it was on the air. And eventually, we just had to say how much longer do we go on without the show really catching on?”
Ostroff also said that the network tried their best every year to come up with a way to attract more viewers. Unfortunately, they “just weren’t able to crack it.”
Despite being a critics favorite, the series failed to secure a large enough viewership, often putting it on the verge of cancellation. After the season three finale aired in May, the network gave fans some glimmer of hope by saying that it would wait until June 15 to issue a final statement regarding the show’s fate.
Fans organized a save-the-show campaign, sending thousands of Mars chocolate bars to Ostroff’s office. Nevertheless, the network decided to cancel the show anyway when the deadline came.
Although creator Rob Thomas appreciates the fans’ efforts, he told Blogcritics.com before the show’s official cancellation that he felt the deadline was just the network’s way of deflecting the fact that they had been cancelled. He also said that the network did not offer him any new deal nor did they give him a solid opportunity to continue on.
“The truth is [the network] wanted me to write an FBI pilot with no guarantee behind it of episodes,” Thomas told Blogcritics.com. “Meanwhile I’m being offered real money to run a show that is on the air backed up by a development deal, a deal that Warner Brothers [the W of The CW] is not offering.
“And people within the business said that [CBS Corporation President and CEO] Les Moonves was not enthusiastic about putting a new Veronica Mars on the air. So it was asking me to turn down a lot for a very, very outside shot of getting Veronica Mars back on the air,” Thomas explained.
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Blogcritics.com, IF Magazine, Detroit Free Press
(Image Courtesy of the Associated Press)
Staff Columnist, BuddyTV
