Clearly, something is wrong with Pushing Daisies. Ratings are in the toilet, and it’s looking like a longshot to even make it into 2009. It’s already off of ABC’s mid-season schedule and hasn’t had a “back nine” or “back two” or “throw us another script” order yet. It may never get one. So what happened? What’s wrong with Pushing Daisies that it can’t find an audience?
Last night, Daisies hit a new series low, dropping 27% from its ratings against Barack Obama’s commercial. At 4.9 million viewers, it only beat out The CW’s America’s Next Top Model, and that by only 0.1 million viewers. Meanwhile, CBS’s comedies The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried had season highs in ratings, up by 25 and 29% respectively. So let’s see if we can get to the bottom of this.
- Timeslot – Pushing Daisies is up against CBS’s The New Adventures of Old Christine/Gary Unmarried, NBC’s Knight Rider, FOX’s Bones and The CW’s America’s Next Top Model. I was going to say that only Bones is serious competition, as it consistently wins the hour with 10 million+ viewers, but it looks like CBS is surging ahead in the hour, too. Hell, Knight Rider beat Daisies last night with 5.1 million. We’re not looking at the crown champions of the Nielsens here, so I don’t think this is it.
- Stories – At its core, Pushing Daisies is a procedural crime drama, and you’d think this would have it be a ratings darling. Just look at the rest of the top shows. CBS cleans up with shows like this. Maybe it’s just on the wrong network. Or maybe the problem is that Daisies is as much a quirky comedy as it is a procedural.
- Characters – Is Emerson Cod too over the top with his tough guy presentation? Olive too perky? Are the aunts just not working as characters so far removed from the main storylines? This season, the writers have really started marrying everything together by having Olive privy to Lily’s secret, and now Stephen Root rooting around the past trying to uncover that pocket-watch, for some reason. Plus, you have the addition of Ned’s twin half-brothers and the mystery of why their father left all three of them. Is it too many characters now? Are they too peppy/needy?
- Tone – The Tim Burton/storybook look and feel of the show may be turning off viewers. Perhaps it’s just a bit “too cute.” But would losing the narration, skipping cute scene changes (like last night’s curtain drops and rises), and toning down the brightness of the colors really make the show better?
Or maybe it’s just a niche show. America has spoken, and we like crime procedurals right now. Pushing Daisies, while technically falling into that category, is a little too off-center to really feel like all the other ones. And we do seem to want them to all feel the same.
America goes through phases where we fall in love with certain types of shows and that’s all we want. We’ve done it with westerns, variety shows, court shows, prime-time soaps, family comedies and now crime procedurals. But I don’t think Daisies will ever fall into one of those broad categories. And while some shows can fall outside the current trends and survive, it’s always going to be a longshot. And apparently a shot too long for Pushing Daisies.
Photo Credit: ABC
Some posts that may be related to this:
Nothing is wrong with Pushing Daisies. Neilson ratings are an antiquated system.
It’s a wonderful show and exactly the kind of escapism we need right now.
It needs some support from ABC and a better time slot. Put it up against Heroes. That show is losing viewers – it lost me.
https://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=7858
So according to TFC ABC is officially not picking it up for a full season, along with DSM and Eli Stone. While a total longshot, it’s still possible that it could come back next fall. This irritates me so much as Pushing Daisies is the ONLY new broadcast show that I started watching before it got picked up for a second season in the last two years.
Yes, Daisies seems to be officially canceled:
https://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b69940_sources_daisies_eli_dsm_canceled.html
I only watched the first few episodes then lost interest. I didn’t even know it was a procedural crime show!
What lost me was the tone of the show. It’s not “comedy” as such, but quirky fits. I love both versions of Willie Wonka, but wouldn’t want to watch a show about it every week. That’s where Daisies fits in my world. I’m not a huge Tim Burton fan. I like some Burton, some I cannot stomach. This year’s Sweeney Todd was one of the worst movies I almost had to sit through. Hated it. While Daisies wasn’t quite to that degree for me, it wasn’t something I would really want to watch on a routine basis.
Sorry to all you fans out there. I know how awful it is to see a show you love falter. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you! Unlike others, I’d like to think there’s room for many different types of shows, even ones I don’t like. :-)
It’s a niche show for quirky geeks, and we are not a majority. People apparently love According to Jim and every reality show instead. Period.
Sigh.
The more this happens, the more I stop caring, though. I just learn to enjoy the four episodes of whatever I get. This show had a longer run than it should have in America.
Please don’t generalize, Jennifer. I don’t enjoy Pushing Daisies, but I don’t watch reality or According to Jim. Just because I didn’t watch your show doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate its value.
I think the problem with Pushing Daisies was Ned, the main character. He had no goals other than to not kill Chuck. Most of the time he was just mopey and awkward. I don’t think he even smiled since the pilot episode. Kind of a waste… the actor was fantastic.
I think the season premiere was really oddly done and because of the huge time between episodes it lost viewers. It’s when they lost me, that’s for sure.
Well, guess it really doesn’t matter now since ABC has officially given it – and two other good shows – the ax! They screwed the show by not re-running the first season over the summer. With still several episodes yet to air, I hope they at least keep it on the schedule so we get to see the “Dead Like Me” crossover episode! And episode 13 is a cliffhanger that we’ll probably never see resolved (unless you want to buy comic books as Bryan Fuller has stated he’ll use to wrap things up). I love “Pushing Daisies” and I hate ABC!
Pushing Daisies is absolutely a niche show. It would have worked out much better on showtime or HBO.