ABC, Pushing Daisies, Life on Mars

Well that's it. ABC has decided not to renew Pushing Daisies, with the thirteenth episode of the season being its final. Initially there were reports that the show might have a shortened season of 13 episodes, but get renewed for a third season and relaunched in the fall. Apparently that's not going to happen. Damn it! Pushing Daisies was a great show, and the only reason it faltered in the ratings was because ABC handled it poorly. During its first season, the series averaged around 8 to 9 million viewers. When the writers strike happened, the network decided to take it off the air and not bring it back until the start of the new season, which was idiotic since how could the series build interest and discussion if it's not on the air for eight months. Then the network decided to keep its Wednesday Night lineup exactly the same, with Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, and Dirty Sexy Money, even though all had been new shows the previous season, none of them became breakout hits, and none of them aired episodes after the writers strike. Duh! ABC you make me so mad!

While I'm talking about ABC, let me talk about another great show on ABC, with ratings troubles of its own, Life on Mars. I'm watching it last night, and its coming to the end of the episode and it goes off into this weird, almost Lynchian direction, where Sam is led to a cabin/shack, a phone rings and the person on the other end tells him to go into the basement. Then it just ends and I'm thinking, I can't wait until next week to see what happens, but a commercial comes on saying the next episode won't air until the end of January, after the season premiere of Lost. Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! Why do I have to wait so long! At least ABC realized the show would be better matched with Lost than Grey's Anatomy. Hopefully it will have higher ratings, get renewed and finish its story, even if it's only in two seasons.