Joss Whedon’s original science fiction TV series, Firefly, aired on the Fox network from September 20 to December 20 of 2002. A total of eleven (of the fourteen total episodes produced) were aired before the show was canceled. Firefly is a strong (and tragic) example of the kind of influence, if not absolute control, a network has over the airing show.
From the very beginning, Joss Whedon and Fox executives did not get along in terms of how best to handle Firefly. Whedon explicitly requested and explained that the series had to be aired in widescreen due to the wide angles required to show all the characters and events occurring on the edges of the screen. Fox completely ignored and rejected what Whedon was envisioning, thus starting the production of the show off to a rocky start. This forced Whedon to change his film style so that all the fullscreen shots included the characters that were important to the scenes, while still trying to cater to audiences who would buy widescreen DVDs in the future. Fox similarly rejected the pilot for numerous reasons; including a lack of captivating characters in the beginning (which were added later) and the concern that the show would not keep the attention of viewers.
It is widely accepted that Fox, whether intentionally or not, strongly contributed to the ultimate failure of Firefly. Listed below are some of the ways in which Fox’s control over the show affected its ratings, viewership, and the overall end result:
From the very beginning, Joss Whedon and Fox executives did not get along in terms of how best to handle Firefly. Whedon explicitly requested and explained that the series had to be aired in widescreen due to the wide angles required to show all the characters and events occurring on the edges of the screen. Fox completely ignored and rejected what Whedon was envisioning, thus starting the production of the show off to a rocky start. This forced Whedon to change his film style so that all the fullscreen shots included the characters that were important to the scenes, while still trying to cater to audiences who would buy widescreen DVDs in the future. Fox similarly rejected the pilot for numerous reasons; including a lack of captivating characters in the beginning (which were added later) and the concern that the show would not keep the attention of viewers.
It is widely accepted that Fox, whether intentionally or not, strongly contributed to the ultimate failure of Firefly. Listed below are some of the ways in which Fox’s control over the show affected its ratings, viewership, and the overall end result:
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Fox, like all other networks, was most interested in the bottom line, which ultimately led to the demise of Firefly. In general, as analysis has shown, Fox network is not particularly fond of sci-fi type shows and has historically had a difficult time maintaining air-time for shows similar in genre to Firefly. However, it is hard to argue that Fox’s decision to cancel Whedon’s show was not justified. Each episode of Firefly cost around $2 million to create, while the pilot cost over $10 million. At the end of the day, Fox made the decision that Firefly was not bringing in enough viewers, and by extension, revenue. When asked as to why Firefly was canceled, Gail Berman, the former president of entertainment at Fox said, “It was a numbers thing. It was a wonderful show and I loved it and I loved working with him on it but that was a big show, a very expensive show, and it wasn’t delivering the numbers.” While it is true that Firefly was very expensive to maintain and produce, the show had many aspects of network constraints that held the show back from becoming a hit show.
The Neilsen Rating System is a ranking of the frequency and popularity among shows on television in the United States. This system tracked Firefly from the first pilot airing finding negative responses in popularity, possibly due to the lack of advertisement and announcement of the shows release. Beginning in Sep 20, 2002 during the series premiere the national overall rating of Firefly was a 4.0 this is compared to a 2.7 for the final airing date of December 20, 2002. Furthermore, Firefly began at a ranking of 66 out of 119 shows nationally, but this ranking quickly decreased and hit a low on the 8th episode at 103 out of 136. The show started at a relatively low rank due to the low amounts of advertising that Fox network issued. The last showing of Firefly ended up regaining a small amount of momentum which placed the show at 88 out of 131 for the final airing. Compared to the rankings of all the other Fox shows, Firefly never reached anything higher than being third to last in viewership on Fox. (Nielsen Ratings for Firefly’s First Season). The ratings shown above give clear evidence as to how the show began with an uphill battle and how the show had to fight against the network and endure low ratings for the entire season.
The Neilsen Rating System is a ranking of the frequency and popularity among shows on television in the United States. This system tracked Firefly from the first pilot airing finding negative responses in popularity, possibly due to the lack of advertisement and announcement of the shows release. Beginning in Sep 20, 2002 during the series premiere the national overall rating of Firefly was a 4.0 this is compared to a 2.7 for the final airing date of December 20, 2002. Furthermore, Firefly began at a ranking of 66 out of 119 shows nationally, but this ranking quickly decreased and hit a low on the 8th episode at 103 out of 136. The show started at a relatively low rank due to the low amounts of advertising that Fox network issued. The last showing of Firefly ended up regaining a small amount of momentum which placed the show at 88 out of 131 for the final airing. Compared to the rankings of all the other Fox shows, Firefly never reached anything higher than being third to last in viewership on Fox. (Nielsen Ratings for Firefly’s First Season). The ratings shown above give clear evidence as to how the show began with an uphill battle and how the show had to fight against the network and endure low ratings for the entire season.
Despite struggles between Whedon and Fox executives over the fate of Firefly, fans have remained loyal throughout. When Firefly was canceled, fans—dubbed Browncoats in honor of the doomed-but-noble Independents—campaigned to have it moved to another network. Even though they ultimately failed, it still helped convince Fox to release the DVD of the show, including three extra unaired episodes. This shows that despite the seemingly untouchable power a network might retain over a show, fans can work toward and obtain a more desirable outcome because they ultimately hold the power. What should be importantly noted is the passion and loyalty that Firefly fans had, not only to the TV show itself, but also the feature film and other attempts to create sequels. The series was not a hit in the corporate eyes of Fox but brought about much Firefly loyalty and fan attention. Actually showing that the show received more attention after the cancellation. Interesting enough the Science Channel aired the season in 2011 and it quickly became one of their most watched shows. It aired on Sunday nights and both the two hour pilot and episode one were among the top ten telecasts for the week which also led the channel to show an encore telecast of the pilot (MentalFloss). Fans are still highly supportive of the show and are constantly finding ways to work with Whedon again on other “Browncoats” projects. As we have seen the show's popularity and support grow greater after the cancellation of the show. Firefly can be noted as one of the television shows on network TV to have gained more followers post-cancellation which shows that the content was there but the network support was not.