it came as a shock to fans when pretty
little liars wrapped after seven seasons
on the air
the identity of a had changed more times
than most could keep track of and the
show left plenty of unanswered questions
and cliffhangers
here's why pretty little liars got
cancelled
for die hard fans who couldn't get
enough of rosewood the news that there
wouldn't be an eighth season came as a
shock
the announcement of the show's
cancellation came during a facebook live
event with the show's creator marlene
king
and the show's main cast members troyan
belisario
ashley benson lucy hale shay mitchell
and sasha petersa
the announcement was made halfway
through the seventh season freeform's
executive vice president of programming
and development said about the show's
ending
through brilliant storytelling
compelling characters and social media
phenomena pretty little liars paved the
way for television shows writers and
cast to interact and engage with
audiences
on a national and global scale like
never before which led the series to
unparalleled success
while pretty little liars had a loyal
fan base the show wasn't critically
acclaimed
shortly after its premiere pretty little
liars was hit with a slew of criticism
including a pretty scathing review in
the new york post which said
if you are a parent of someone addicted
to sarah shepard's pretty little liars
young adult novels
have i got a show you will probably hate
for the same reason your daughter will
likely fall for this pretty little silly
show
you will want to keep her away from it
in the premiere episode alone
viewers saw drug use an adult
relationship with a minor and of course
a murder so it makes sense that parents
might not have been enamored with the
show
pretty little liars had more twists than
most of us could recall and it left
audiences with a lot of questions
following the announcement of the show's
cancellation marlene king said in a
statement to variety i'm excited for
fans to finally have all of their
questions answered and i believe they
will be satisfied with the wild ride
that is our last 10 episodes
it's been an epic journey we've had so
much fun i've made so many great friends
but we're not so sure that the questions
were answered and some of the cast
members were left with cliffhangers too
after the cancellation of the spin-off
pretty little liars the perfectionists
sasha petersa who played alison told
entertainment tonight
i would have loved more closure for the
fans and more answers for me
i know everybody has emerson questions
so i think what i've decided is to
answer them myself
as variety reported ultimately the story
had run its course and the cast whose
contracts were up at the end of season 7
is now free to explore more projects
it's been reported that the network and
the studio behind pretty little liars
wanted additional seasons of the show
but not everyone was on board marlene
king reportedly asked the cast who
wanted to stay and who wanted to go
ultimately king set her sights on other
projects in fact the showrunner traded
pretty little liars for famous in love
a since cancelled show starring bella
thorne basically if the pretty little
liars team had made different choices
fans might have gotten even more
episodes of the series
successful spin-offs are hard to pull
off there's no doubt about it and pretty
little liars took a bit of a hit when
its spin-off ravenswood was canceled in
2014
after just one season abc family
canceled the show which saw pretty
little liars star tyler blackburn return
as caleb after 10 episodes the show only
raked in about 1.4 million viewers and
never performed the way that pretty
little liars did
ravenswood was full of the same kinds of
twists and turns that pretty little
liars brought to the screen but despite
having the same
creator and a lot of overlapping themes
the show didn't deliver
blackburn returned to pretty little
liars shortly after the spin-off ended
but the failure must have hurt
not everyone wanted pretty little liars
to endure as long as it did
in fact some viewers thought the show
should have ended after season two
as noted by bustle the show's plot and
any sense of realness started to go
downhill after the second season
specifically when the series revealed
that mona was a the girl's online bully
of course the pretty little liar's
creator had other plans though she
didn't even have the idea of an uber a
until the beginning of season five as
troy and belisario who played spencer
told
l i was first told in the beginning of
season five marlene took me aside and
told me i have an idea but i don't know
if the network will let me do it then
she sat me down and explained this whole
ending to me she said
you cannot tell anybody it might not
even happen so i sat on it for over a
year
then at the end of season six she said
we're going to do it
keep the twists and turns and the omg
moments coming
it's hard to imagine that some of the
cast members of pretty little liars were
against the show's plot
however trian belisario wasn't always on
board with the show's twists and turns
it was only after a conversation with
one of the show's directors that her
perspective began to change
as she told elle i think a lot about
stories that are science fiction or
fantasy
if your characters live in a world with
dragons and magical powers or in a world
where we can easily travel through space
and time
then your job is to play it for keeps of
course there weren't any dragons and
pretty little liars just a lot of
backstabbing we can imagine that script
reads were pretty wild for the actors
bringing the pretty little liars world
to life
to the television world ratings mean
everything and pretty little liars
started to lose its viewership over time
as noted by tv series finale the third
season of the show raked in huge numbers
of viewers
mostly within the 18 to 49 year old
demographic the season averaged 1.1
million viewers in the key demographic
and 2.59 million viewers overall but by
the seventh season of the show it was a
whole different story
pretty little liars was only hitting
about 550 000 viewers in the key
demographic with 1.1 million viewers
overall
as for what contributed to the sharp
decline buzzfeed suggested that viewers
grew tired of some of the show's plot
points
like the fact that ezra had a
relationship with not just one minor but
two or that jenna blackmailed toby into
having a relationship with her despite
the fact that they were step siblings
some fans just didn't have it in them to
see it through to the end
while some casts get incredibly upset
when their shows come to an end
the main cast members of pretty little
liars were ready to sign on to other
projects
which makes sense since they had spent
seven years playing the same characters
shay mitchell who played emily had
already started branching out with the
comedy mother's day
lucy hale who played arya signed with
icm and troyen belisario had signed on
to an indie project called sister cities
on lifetime
by the time pretty little liars ended
ashley benson who played hannah had
starred in spring breakers and janelle
parrish had been a contestant on dancing
with the stars
one thing was clear the cast was ready
to move on
if all fans can agree on one thing about
pretty little liars it's that the show
was stressful to watch
from the up and down relationships and
the breakups to the untimely deaths to
the cover-ups to the killings
viewers really didn't know what to
expect from one episode to the next
and it looks like the emotional toll of
the show was also a burden for creator
marlene king as well
in an interview with tv line king
divulged it's such a weird feeling of
mixed emotions but relief
is probably the biggest word of all all
that mythology was taking up so much
space in my brain
and i can now release it this is kind of
like the love letter to the fans this
season
it was hard for us to watch and process
the show let alone be the mastermind
that cooked up all the drama
so we hoped that king got the much
deserved break she needed after the show
came to a close
among the award shows that exist one is
both brutally honest
and a direct reflection of the fans and
that's the teen choice awards
the awards rely on votes from viewers
which makes the popularity of certain tv
shows painfully clear
in 2010 the year that pretty little
liars premiered the show was nominated
for three awards
choice summer tv show choice summer tv
star male and choice summer tv star
female
the program swept all three categories
solidifying its place on the stage
three years later pretty little liars
made such a huge dent in the awards that
it was easy to think that the show had
won every category it garnered awards
for choice tv show
choice tv actor choice tv actress choice
tv villain
choice summer tv show and choice summer
tv star mail
that was the show's peak and by the time
the 2017 teen choice awards rolled
around
pretty little liars only snagged two
awards leave it to teens to tell you
exactly what they think
pretty little liars had its viewers
divided some hated toby and spencer
together
while others thought that jenna was
behind everything still other viewers
thought that arya and ezra were the
worst while other fans had theories as
to who
a was and who really killed allison well
as pretty little liars progressed
fan theories began to be either proven
or debunked and by the time the two-hour
series finale rolled around
fans were seriously involved in the uber
a mystery sadly
some fans were so upset with the series
finale that they wrote their own endings
some viewers were upset that one of the
main villains of the show bethany didn't
even appear on screen until season six
others were confused by the whole evil
british twin thing that went down with
spencer and alex drake
and the thing that caps all the
frustration off is that there were 13
deaths in pretty little liars and few of
them were explained
while fans and theorists alike can
critique and complain about pretty
little liars
the show had a massive influence not
just on its audience but on the teen
television scene as a whole
the show paved the way for a new
generation of young adult dramas
not just because of its engaging plot
but because of the ways in which social
media was used to further the show's
audience and appeal
until pretty little liars burst onto the
scene the only young adult show
that even dared to be as dramatic was
the vampire diaries
since the liars graced our screens teen
dramas have taken a bunch of different
forms and
as such have really pushed the
boundaries die hard pretty little liars
fans were met with amazing news shortly
after the show wrapped as they found out
that a spin-off the perfectionists was
in the works
the show brought back fan favorites like
alison and mona but despite the success
of the original program the
perfectionist did not stick and was
cancelled in 2019 after just one season
it's it's a it's just a big bold
statement
given the ratings it's no wonder that
the show didn't last long pretty little
liars at its peak had over 2.5 million
viewers each week
the perfectionists had an average of 600
000 viewers and only garnered 260 000
the night it premiered
of course it did leave many fans very
upset with some even taking to twitter
to air their grievances
one user wrote i hate networks that
cancel shows on cliffhangers
the lying game star young and hungry and
now pll the perfectionists
looks like fans are going to have to
speculate as to what their favorite
rosewood characters have been up to
since the show and its spin-offs ended
for good
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