sharky

That's been their M.O. for awhile now though. Robin, Will, Maleficent, August, Neal, Marian. And that's just the characters and not even counting the overly contrived twists. I don't know what to do with those two. As much as I'm one of those people who is glad the show got renewed, is it too much to ask ABC to change show runners? I can think of recent cases where it didn't work, but those instances didn't involve a hard reset like this. There's a natural reset here if they go the wish realm route so put the wish realm in the hands of someone new.

If Netflix paid for streaming, I think Once could hit a 0.4 and still do the full season. And as ABC has proven, they will run a show with low numbers. American Crime was pulling 0.3 by the end, Quantico is being given its full run with bad numbers, Shield had a 0.5 this season I believe and got renewed. Conviction and Notorious were pretty horrific and got their full 13-episode run. There may be some other factors involved -- how well the new dramas do for example -- but I could see them giving Once a lot of rope before finally pulling them. That being said, I also wouldn't be surprised if ABC puts a heavy hand on the show runners or even replaces A&E in the next few weeks.

Yep. And Stana got fired in mid-April, a month before schedule decisions were being made. Speaking on contract news, did they release news about contract negotiations around the same time JMo informed them she wasn't returning? I wonder if that's when they leaked the story to see if it could maybe persuade Jen to stay. I think we thought it was odd timing when it came out in February.

Too late. The show was renewed yesterday.

Yeah, I think they may have had to choose where to drive the bank truck and Modern Family was their first choice. They did pick up a Zach Braff project, which makes me think some extra comedy money was spent there. And if they pick up the Carol Burnett pilot, that's another high profile but high priced show. On the other hand, ABC picked up a House-like show from a guy from House and a Shonda show if that tells you anything about their drama picks.

No, ratings definitely still matter no matter how much money Netflix throws in. But that extra cash gives a boost to the show's renewal.

You also have to factor in Golden Globes, Grammys, and the Billboard awards, which air on ABC. And totally forgot about the Olympics next year. The schedule will be interesting next week.

Hand wave. Literally. EQ saw the pretty Hook and can't stand the fat guy so hand wave! He looks pretty in the wish realm!

I mean, it can feature a time jump and a wish realm, right? The time jump would explain Henry aging and then the wish realm story would tie into that. I don't know. I just don't get all the negativity when we don't even know what's going to happen next. I just can't imagine Jen and Colin, at the very least, deciding on whether to stay or not based on CS not getting their happy ending. Especially Jen. There has to be something else there.

It sounds from reports that it will be a full 22-episode season. I'm not sure what to think about that. Does that mean they are going to move it off of Sunday? Or are they going to shove all the episodes on without a break? How will they fit in 22 episodes if Idol starts in March?

Well Netflix does seem to promote it overseas, particularly with Netlfix UK and Ireland. I just didn't realize they were making that much money off of it. Interesting. I guess this is another sign of the times that Nielsens aren't what they used to be when it comes to renew or cancel. I also wonder if there were some other things involved there. Netflix is making lots of Marvel shows. Perhaps picking up Once greased some Marvel wheels as well?

Probably. Great to hear its renewed! Don't mind that there are big changes. I think we've prepared ourselves for that. Frankly changes need to be made to make it fresh. Regardless of how you feel, I'm glad you all will be back with me debating this ridiculousness again next year at this time.

Sounds like Last Man Standing had two big factors in its cancellation: contract renewals and not owned by ABC. Once is owned by ABC so that's not an issue. And based on JMo's departure and the potential of others leaving, salaries may not be that much of an issue either.

I don't know if they moved up the wedding for Jen. It sounds like they started working on the musical episode in December and writing the finale in January. It feels like a musical episode was supposed to be the wedding -- why just do a musical without it being special? But I agree the timeline is wonky. I wonder what this reboot is like and if this CS separation was also because they were trying to prove Hook could have storylines without Emma that would work. Its almost like it was a test for the spin off they had just pitched to Channing. This all ties into the fact that they apparently were doing reshoots for other episodes up to close to the end. For example, Jen posted a photo of "the last Charming lunch this season" which had Ginny, Jennifer and Colin in their pancake scene costumes. That happened three episodes ago so why was it shot close to the end of the season? I think the wedding time line getting pushed up because of Jen could explain that but again, what was their plan for the musical episode if it hadn't all along been the wedding episode?

Yeah, if Idol starts on Sundays in March, I could see ABC ordering a reduced season from Once. HTGAWM runs 15 episodes a season, and we've seen what A&E can do with a little more focus in a shorter amount of time. So instead of two 12-episode arcs, just make one 16-episode arc from September to February and then bring in Idol. Crazy enough, the Masked Scheduler column addressed this a few weeks ago and said it wouldn't be a feasible option for networks to go back to that strategy. Plus, any Disney movies have the additional issue that they are already out there. It used to be that Disney would only release an archived movie on VHS or DVD once every seven years "before it goes back in the vault!" But right now, I can rent Tangled from Amazon for $4 and I get it immediately at home -- don't even have to go to Blockbuster for it! Who wants to wait until Sunday to watch a Disney movie that's already being rerun on one of the many Disney channels or streaming on Netflix or can be purchased on Amazon? What makes watching Frozen on ABC on Sunday special if I already watched it twice this weekend on the Disney channel and have it on my iPad and my Kindle and can stream it on my television without those pesky commercials?

That's exactly what Fox did with American Idol. In the last few seasons, Idol ran in a spot that was also taken up by shows like Bones, Rosewood and even Empire. Hell, ABC has already been running game shows in place of Once when it's not running new episodes. Why would it stop making sense now? And from Deadline's story yesterday about JMo's departure:

ABC and the rest of the networks have a huge issue competing against football in the fall on NBC, and ABC would never want to put Idol against that. The speculation is that they are going to start Idol in March so it would be totally logical for them to use Once as a fall show that's counter programming for football and their sacrificial lamb for that spot. Plus, the season would then be similar to the half-season arcs we're used to.

I'm actually looking forward to them cutting cast and I think this could bring sone people back depending on the story. The cast got way too bloated and needed to be cut down. If you do a good adventure story from scratch and put some ad dollars behind it, it may work.

I doubt that. A&E have a track record of being accommodating to the actors as needed. Robert got time off for Trainspotting press. They juggled the schedule so Colin could get some time off for Carrie Pilby. And as much as we complain about the lack of Snowing, part of that was due to Josh and Ginny asking for reduced time so they could spend it with their kids. I know we want to jump on A&E for their failures -- and there were definitely failures -- but they've been pretty supportive of actor requests to get time off for various other things. Why wouldn't they do the same for JMo if she wanted some longer weekends in LA to edit the movie she directed?

I would agree if this is the first time we've heard her say something like this. But we've heard her talk about not liking Vancouver for a long time. It's been no secret that she spends her weekends in LA or NYC and has apartments in both places. She wasn't like Colin, who lived in Vancouver full time and had his family there with him. I don't know if she wants to start a family or get married or any of that as much as she just wants to be where she wants to be and she just doesn't consider Vancouver home. At some point, that has to wear on you. Perhaps she just felt like this would be the natural end point for Emma and it worked well with her decision to get back to her LA/NYC life.

Why do you think I wrote fanfic? Also hoping to get my own manuscript self-pubbed this month. So at least Once gave me that.

Oh me too! Jones boys, his relationship with Milan, etc. I just worry about the ret conning that would have to take place. If you do a wish verse, you can throw out canon (as if AE ever paid attention to that anyway) and start over with a clean slate.

She could have done her own thing, but she doesn't seem like the type to go rogue like that. And Adam and Eddy had an immediate response. Also, I think she would be under contract for media things even if the show ended filming. Again, Jen doesn't seem like the type to go rogue and doesn't seem to have any animosity about the decision. As for Castle, i would describe that situation using one of my favorite curse words: it was a clusterfuck. They fired people in mid-April and those people went rogue and trashed the network on their way out. Nathan and Stana hated each other. There were factions that were duking it out in social media and traditional media before ABC finally axed the show. This isn't Castle. There may have been creative difference or contract differences that caused Jen to make this decision. But she doesn't seem like she's leaving on bad terms or is burning bridges or wants to trash her co-workers, especially Colin, on the way out. I think her announcement would've been very different if this were a Castle situation.

It's easier to keep a show with sets and crew and writers that are already there. Also they may run it in the fall as the sacrificial football lamb rather than trying to launch something new there. I think a wish verse could work without Jen. If they were creating a wish verse knowing contract negotiations may go their way or not, it would be easy to insert whatever characters into that verse. If she's in one episode she can be there to hand wave her previous wish incarnation away.

They also could've made an announcement in this week's teaser that it was the series finale in that case. Thy didn't. This was orchestrated and controlled by ABC. They had a plan that likely includes Jen's announcement and the response from A&E. I expect an announcement this week on renewal. That being said, they also may have expected better ratings from the musical so who knows if that and the AI announcement have changed anything.