TV Newsline: The TV Gods Giveth, and the TV Gods Taketh Away

Some good and some bad news today from two different television stations concerning two critically acclaimed shows. (Note: good/bad nature of news will vary based on personal tastes.)


First, the bad: FX has decided to cancel their continually improving, could-have-been-great series, Lights Out, about a financially bankrupt ex-boxer who returns to the sport to provide for him family. Think of it like The Fighter, but in televised and so much better.

The real blow here (besides the loss of a great show) was that this was the second critically-hailed, but hardly watched show that FX has had to cancel within a year, the other being the even-greater and lesser-watched PI dramedy Terriers. Admittedly FX has still come out on top overall, what with the recent successes in Louie, Archer, and Justified, with the latter two currently airing their second season, and former to returning this summer. Yet considering that the first two are made on the cheap, and can afford the lower viewer numbers they sustain, and that Justified had a wickedly high premiere viewership, one can only wonder if this is going to curtail their development of high-class dramas.

Then, the good news: Comedy Central has ordered 26 more episode of the cult favorite Futurama, in what will be the show's seventh production season, but will probably be counted as the eighth and ninth seasons when aired. (Seriously, between Fox screwing up the original air order of the first four seasons, the four movies being broadcast as a fifth or sixth season, and then the previous season being split between two summers, it's a bit hard to tell at this point what season the show is on. The wikipedia has some idea, though.) Considering there are still 13 more episodes of the last production season to air this summer, this mean Futurama is guaranteed to air through at least 2013.

UPDATE: Alan Sepinwall was able to contact John Landgraf, president over at FX, and ask him about what the Lights Out cancellation would mean for the nextwork. There interview in here.