Fans of the television hit, “The O.C.,” might have came to a bit of a shock when the FOX network announced earlier this week that the teen soap is in danger of being cancelled.
In actuality, the issue at hand is not whether or not the show will be cancelled, but when it will be cancelled. Before the new season even began, the show’s episode order was cut from 25 episodes to a mere 16, with little or no intention to bring it back for another season after. With the extremely low number of viewers the show is getting with its first few episodes of the season, FOX is worried that the O.C. won’t last till its 16th episode.
The O.C. first came onto television in Aug. 2003, and was an immediate success. The show had every element at the time to make a great television show: a unique story, surprise plot twists, a fair balance between action and drama, as well as some of the most beautiful actors and actresses to grace the small screen.
The show became so popular among the pop culture world that it began to influence what clothes teens wore as well as their musical tastes. Several mainstream bands such as The Killers, Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, Rooney, and Modest Mouse have the O.C. to thank for boosting their sales and popularity.
The show even invented its own holiday, Chrismukkah, which consists of eight days of gifts followed by one day of many, many gifts. With this fictional holiday just weeks away, the cancellation comes as a nice piece of coal for the show’s creator, Josh Schwartz.
Once claiming as many as 15 million viewers who tuned in every week to watch this group of teens find their way in and out of trouble, the show has had a severe drop in viewers, bringing in only 3 million per night for its fourth season.
Where did all the fans go?
While I think the cause of this downfall can be attributed to the repetitive story line, others believe that The O.C. was just part of a teen-soap fad, a fad that is now passing.
Or maybe history is repeating itself and people are becoming just as sick and tired of watching twenty-five year old actors posing as sixteen-year-olds, as they did with Melrose Place and 90210.
Students here at Fairfield have mixed feelings about the issue. Some feel that the cancellation is due to its fans being turned to new up-and-coming shows such as Grey’s Anatomy.
“Sorry, McDreamy takes up my Thursday nights,” said Kim Grzybala ’09.
This stiff competition is due to the two shows sharing the same time slot. As well as Grey’s Anatomy, The O.C. also has to defend its time slot to NBC’s Scrubs and CBS’s CSI.
“I’m not that upset that it’s being cancelled,” said Jess Fullager ’08. “I never understood how high school kids could get into so much trouble every week.”
While many remain unaffected by the news, there are still some students who saw this as a shock.
“I’m going into a deep, deep depression,” said Meridith Moses ’10. “Seth Cohen is wicked hot and will be totally missed.”
The FOX network still seems to have faith in both the show and its loyal viewers. The network has even posted on their Web site a petition titled “Save the OC.” The petition states that not enough people are watching the show, leaving it in critical danger. By signing the petition, you can show FOX network how many people are still loyal and dread the cancellation.
The petition doesn’t seem to be doing too well though, as it only has 90,000 signatures, compared to the millions of viewers it’d need to remain a profitable show.
The O.C. had a good four-year run, but it’s about time they bring it to an end. There was a certain element the show had in the beginning that made people tune in.
Maybe it was the psychopathic teens, drug-dealing brothers and pregnant teens with unknown fathers. Or maybe it was the beautiful Mischa Barton that brought in all the viewers. Whichever one of these it was, they are missing now.
If the writers really want to find a way to get this show back on its feet, bring back the suicidal Oliver; that kid’s scenes made some damn great TV. Whatever kind of approach the writers take for these next few episodes, it’s pretty safe to say that these will be the last episodes of The O.C.
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