Overview[edit]

Commercial television and radio is supported by advertising. Subscription outlets, including cable and satellite television and satellite radio, have the additional revenue stream of subscriber fees (broadcast stations in some areas may also have retransmission consent privileges, but this is not universal; Canada, for instance, does not allow it). Viewing figures are collected by audience measurement ratings agencies (such as Nielsen in the United States), and the programs with the highest viewing figures command a higher advertising fee for the network. As such, shows with a low viewership are generally not as profitable. For most United States networks, the number of viewers within the 18–49 age range is more important than the total number of viewers.^[4][5] According to Advertising Age, during the 2007–08 season, Grey's Anatomy was able to charge $419,000 per television commercial, compared to only $248,000 for a commercial during CSI, despite CSI having almost five million more viewers on average.^[6] Due to its strength in young demographics, Friends was able to charge almost three times as much for a commercial as Murder, She Wrote, even though the two television series had similar total viewer numbers during the seasons they were on the air together.^[4] (A slight exception to this is CBS, whose self-stated target audience is persons 25 to 54 years old; because of this, CBS programs tend to favor slightly older audiences than their broadcast rivals.)


Other factors are considered as well, such as the cost to produce the show. For example, most game shows cost less money to produce than a drama series, so even if the game show has lesser ratings it may survive cancellation because of the higher profit margin. Game shows and self-contained reality shows, which can be produced on short order with very little preparation compared to scripted series and annual contests, may not be canceled in the same way, but merely have the network cease ordering episodes and end up in limbo (except for those that have high production costs); in turn, these types of shows are also easily brought back if a network needs to produce filler programming quickly (as was the case with Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, which was renewed more than three years after it had produced its last episode because of a programming shortage on Fox).^[7] Whether the show is produced by the network or an outside company can also factor into a show's future; networks, especially in the 21st century, tend to prefer shows that are produced in-house, as they can take advantage of vertical integration and, in addition to making money from the first run of the show on the network, continue to profit from syndicating the reruns.^[8] Thus, if two shows have similar ratings and expenses but one is produced by the network while the other is held by an outside company, the outsider program is more likely to be canceled. This was not an issue in the late 20th century, when Financial Interest and Syndication Rules prohibited American networks from owning syndicators.


Very rarely are television programs cancelled for reasons other than ratings or profitability. Notable cases are Turn-On and Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos, which were canceled after viewer and station outrage (in the latter case, it managed to be cancelled despite being a special, being pulled off-air midway through its lone airing by the network's owner); Bridget Loves Bernie, which was forced off the air in 1973 despite high ratings because of threats of violence from Jewish radicals; Flatbush, an adaptation of the film The Lords of Flatbush that was cancelled after three episodes due to its offensive ethnic portrayals and the resulting objections from Howard Golden, the Kings County executive;^[9] Home Run Derby, which was canceled in 1960 due to the host's death (Major League Baseball would make the concept an official annual event beginning in 1986); Roseanne, which was cancelled in 2018 despite considerable commercial success over objections to title star Roseanne Barr's social media comments (Roseanne was eventually retooled without Barr as The Conners); Megan Wants a Millionaire, which was cancelled in August 2009 following the arrest warrant and subsequent suicide of one of the finalists; Winky Dink and You, canceled because its interactive television component caused countless children to both sit too close to the TV set (raising concerns about X-ray radiation from early cathode ray tubes) and damage home television sets by drawing directly on the screens (the show was meant to be used with a plastic sheet covering the screen); and Cops and Live PD, which were both cancelled in June 2020 in the wake of protests following the murder of George Floyd (Cops would be revived a year later as an online-only production after the protests had subsided and the police officer who killed Floyd was convicted). One example of a television program that was canceled because of war is the CBS Television Quiz, which was cancelled by CBS in May 1942 in order to allow the United States government to divert resources to World War II. Several television programs were also canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; radio, which can more easily be produced remotely, was less affected, though some live programs (particularly Live from Here) did not survive.


A television series that attempts to tell a long, overarching story can be canceled even before it resolves all story arcs and broadcasts all of its planned episodes. For some series that may be canceled, the creators may try to end the current season finale on a cliffhanger to give fans the impression that the series trul is unfinished and needs to keep telling more stories, but even that may not work and can produce a strong bout of disappointment if the series is cancelled anyway. An example of this is UPN sitcom Moesha


Some series that are renewed and planned for another season can also be cancelled, such as The Electric Company and Transformers: Animated.