findyourselfin

Just saw this on twitter and... (pardon me but) wtf? Didn't see that one coming INDEED. Especially because with the season finale getting closer, Mike was doing tons of interviews talking about his projects for the upcoming seasons.

I know that ABC's president said that they weren't that happy with the season 2 of the show on the last upfronts, but they said that they trusted on Mike. And even though I might get upset with some of Mike's interviews () I liked how him and the cast seemed to get along. On the panels about the show they always seemed to be in synchrony.

And about the 12 episodes thing, once he had talked about it (I guess it was when the Emmy nominations came out that he talked about how unfair it was to be put against the cable shows that got seasons of 12 episodes and a good amount of time to work on their episodes, against the broadcast show that had to put their stories on 22 episodes) but I think that season 1 was really well managed. Their pace was really good and the fact that the Tyler storyline worked so well as a parallel to the main story line (Emily getting her revenge on the people that wronged her father) really helped. This season I just wished that the Initiative story was more like a Tyler-wise story than the main thing, it got worn out pretty fast. But I don't think that this is a huge trouble to handle with.

Anyway, for what I understood, his contract came to an end and it wasn't renewed. He will remain being a consultant for the series but will not make the main decisions anymore. (but I'm still shocked. I was getting used to disagree with Mike's interviews)

MsDeme70

Wow! I think the last wheel just fell off the bus! I agree with him on the shorter seasons. The 22 episodes season that network tv is still using from the dark ages doesn't work anymore. There are too many viewing options now. I dropped two other ABC shows because I lost interest during the numerous breaks. And honestly the 2nd half of season 1 of Revenge is a blur. Mike Kelley had a great concept with introducing the season with a fast forward cliffhanger. What a hook! And it worked well within a 13 episode season.

I'm curious to know what the cast thinks?

ForVanAngel

Yeah, I agree. I won't (ever) watch a 22 netwok show over the course of one year, September to May. If it's Parenthood, I do it. Because there are no cliffhangers (almost none) but with a show that you have to watch every episode to get everything I wouldn't do it. Comedy is no problem of course.

The breaks are annoying but there have to be some because as you can see, Revenge just has finished shooting season 2 now, and it's end of April but shooting doesn't mean the episodes have seen post production I think. I was happy that Parenthood got only 15 episodes (though I wish there had been more) and those were shown from September to end of January. There were amost no breaks, just counting 2 breaks + the winter break. It was great. For me, though I like 22 episodes seasons that I have seen, I think 13 can be enough. There are a lot of really good cable shows and they make it look so easy.

I liked Revevenge the most until season 15, after the "it's not Daniel, it's Tyler" twist or whatever you wanna call it, it got strange.


Yeah, okay. But did/does Mike Kelley really think he can change the way tv chiefs think or the whole network concept? Revenge has enough characters to fill 22 episodes. I would like to have 13 episodes, yes, but since it's network, I take 22.

Hot Rod

I`ve just seen the big news with MK and i`m as shocked as everyone else. I totally didn`t see this coming at all. In a way, i`m sad that this is happening, because Revenge is Mike`s baby. I hope that ABC will get someone that will keep Revenge where it is and get it back to it`s roots.

As for the number of episodes discussion, i also think that the Big 4 networks need to adopt shorter seasons much like cable shows like GoT, White Collar and PLL has done. I think that it will help enhance a show like Revenge, which has lot it`s focus at times in it`s two seasons.

findyourselfin

PLL as in Pretty Little Liars? Because, they do 24 episodes per season, with short breaks. I mean, last season just ended on march and next season is due to june/july.

The "bad part" about doing a 12~15 episode season is that usually, the breaks are longer on them. Like Shameless on Showtime. Is a great show, has 50 minutes episodes but has a gap of 9 months between every season. But it works for them. Just like it works for White Collar. Actually, White Collar is a great example. Because it's a show that would be impossible to produce if it was on the 22 episode format, especialy because they film in NYC, where it's known to be more expansive.
And I think that the networks don't like the idea of having to produce more shows to fill in. So they just throw the September-May seasons because it's more convenient to them.

Also, the fact that it was noticed right now that Mike is out of the show, stroke to me as a sign that it will be renewed. Otherwise, it wouldn't matter if he stick up for the rest of it or not (which made me wonder if maybe it wasn't a condition to renew the show? )

ForVanAngel

I think Hot Rod means it like ABC Family does. Currently e.g. Switched At Birth has aired 10 of its 20 season 2 episodes. The first 10 ran from January to March. Without any break. Now we are on a 3 month break and then we get the final 10 episodes in June. Without any break. With SAB, they made S02E10 a "midseason final" episode, so it felt like a finale but it's acutally just a break from the storylines. This concept works fine. I rather have it this way than having to wait weeks and then a break and so on. I read a comment to the news, it says:
Sounds right to me. Not sure if possible with every show but I agree that a show needs several storlines and shouldn't drag one storyline through several seasons.

I think in times like these, there are so many tv shows for everybody, if you actually are waiting for a 9 month gap show in front of your monitor or tv, you should watch someting else. I have so much to catch up on and find new stuff all the time, the waiting for another year is no problem. Also I am behind with a lot of shows, so I can watch now like 2 Dexter seasons within a year if I wanted to. Or 4 of Justified. Or 6 of Sopranos. And start several new shows.

But that was just a bit off topic. Interesting topic. Yeah, the tv line article already was filed under "season 3" and it would be a surprise if ABC didn't renew Revenge, after the flops they had this years. As you say, it's not that easy to get a hit show, and no network can afford to put too many shows on air. They don't work automatically, if they don't, they need new shows and also need hit shows to cover their losses. Since I haven't seen season 2, I can't say if Mike did something wrong and season 2 was not as good as season 1 (I could imagine after what I saw but I won't say it), but ratings were a bit lower than OUAT all the time and thanks to the annoying breaks and ABC's programming against awards and football or whatever that was, it was impossible to get better ratings. And the competition on Sunday is tough. Unfortunaly, tv shows are a pure business at least on network. If a show is bad, it gets exed. If a show is good, it gets 10 seasons even though you say "please stop, it was good but then this and that happened and characters left and were added, it's not good anymore", it still gets produced.

That's why I am watching a lot of cable shows or am more interested in cable than network. They are doing things better.

Pally

I'm with Mike on this. 13 episodes would have been perfect, especially for a show it's supposed to run for 5-6 seasons.
I always thought that a show like Homeland should have just one season, but with its 13 episodes they managed to have a third season and the second one was even better than the first.

findyourselfin

Yup, I thought about the whole season format after I sent the reply hadn't thought about this, just the number of episodes.
And it could work on broadcast, actually. If well planned, they could start their season's in August/early September, after the first half of midseason shows like Rookie Blue, airs the first half of the season (Revenge already works this way of splitting its season on pre-some event and the afterwards of it), takes a break. During this break, it's shown the second half of the midseason shows, they wrap their season and then, in January, they air the second half.

With the crazy hiatus/scheduling on this season, we had 9 episodes before the winter break (from Sept 30th to Dec 2nd), so it's not that hard to try to fix their calendars.

AlwaysCB

TheFairviewHerald

Revenge has officially been renewed! No word on the number of episodes or whether or not it'll stay in the same time slot (OUaT in Wonderland may indeed take over it's spot as a back to back with Once) but this is still wonderful news!

revengefan@07

Revenge has officially been picked up for a third season!

ALEXA82

for a 3rd season!

I´m actually on the fence about that. This 22 eps format worked for years for a lot of shows just fine. These days, whenever IDK, ratings drop or quality sinks they bring in the too many eps per season argument. That´s quite a lazy excuse IMO. I do agree, that the middle part of s2 wasn´t good at all but still, they managed in s1.

josh_2307

yup i agree with you, i think the number of episodes argument is just mike's excuse. They manage to do it well last year, season 1 MUCH better than season 2. Sorry to say but I have to admit season 2 kinda lame and cheesy, too many new characters and unimportant storyline, no wonder ratings and number of viewer drop down. Hope season 3 will be as good as season 1

findyourselfin

Kind of irrelevant but... The cast was voted by Victoria's Secret Angels as the "Sexiest TV Cast" on their picks of "What's sexy?"

EndlessღLove

^ Totally deserved