A cult classic beloved by its legions of devoted fans, Veronica Mars put a fresh spin on the
TV mystery genre.
Former young adult novel author Rob Thomas created the show, a modern-day combination
of noir and Nancy Drew, and it ran for three seasons on UPN and the CW.
Years later, the show would be resurrected as a successfully crowdfunded movie.
Let's explore the real reasons why Veronica Mars was canceled.
Low ratings
Television networks are businesses, and low-rated shows tend to be poor investments.
“This serves as a preemptive apology for the conversation that’s about to take place.”
In its first season back in the Fall of 2004, Veronica Mars ranked a dismal #148 out of
156 total shows.
It ticked up a bit to #145 in its second season, and #138 in its third and final year.
All the while, total viewership held steady at about 2.5 million viewers.
“Tada”
Said CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff at a TV industry event shortly after the cancellation:
"We really tried every single year to bring in more viewers and we just weren't able to
crack it."
Maybe that's true, but the network didn't do Veronica Mars any favors by scheduling
it against Fox's American Idol at the peak of its popularity.
“That is slightly disturbing.”
Tough fit with the CW
In 2006, the two struggling networks, the WB and UPN, merged into a new network called
the CW, which became Veronica Mars' new home.
“This face, right here.
My over the moon face.”
Sadly, despite surviving the merger, it wasn't an easy fit.
Even though CW corporate sibling Warner Bros. Studios produced Veronica Mars, it was canceled
because it couldn't draw in new viewers.
“So are you gonna tell me why I am here, or should I just sit back and enjoy your impression
of a mildly constipated David Caruso.”
That's because the CW was going after a couple of very specific audience niches, and Veronica
Mars—a difficult-to-categorize show that was a little funny and a little dramatic—didn't
fit in with the vampires and superheroes.
Ahead of its time
Veronica Mars ran on broadcast TV just before the so-called "Second Golden Age of Television,"
and before streaming services opened up new opportunities for quirkier shows like the
kind Rob Thomas creates.
Before shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones found accolades for their intricate
plotting that required viewers to pay close attention and watch every episode, TV shows
that dared to be innovative, cinematic, and complicated were often critically acclaimed
but commercially ignored.
Veronica Mars aired around the same time as Arrested Development, another show that pulled
in a small but devoted audience of fans who appreciated precision.
“Coo Coo cacha.
Coo Coo cacha.”
“What are you doing?”
“Michael and women, a-coodle-doodle-do.
“That is what I was just telling him.”
“ a-coodle-doodle-do.”
“Cha”
No reboot
While Veronica Mars was still on the air, some CW executives asked Thomas to write a
show about rookie cops.
He countered with the idea of making the fourth season of Veronica Mars jump forward in time
to show Veronica in her first year as an FBI agent, and they produced a pilot presentation:
a mini-episode about 12 minutes long.
While well-received by CW brass, the reboot wasn't meant to be—Thomas explained in an
interview that he thinks CBS president Les Moonves, killed it:
“We went from dead to back on the air to dead again very quickly.
Our Hail Mary pass came very close to working but didn’t quite get past all the filters
it needed to.”
Moving on
Probably seeing the writing on the wall, Thomas had already secured his next gig by the time
the series was wrapping up its third season.
“Those days are over and it is time to move on.”
He was hired on as a writer and producer for ABC's Miss Guided, a sitcom starring Judy
Greer as a high school guidance counselor.
Thomas was quickly promoted to showrunner and executive producer, but left the series
after only a few weeks due to creative differences.
Miss Guided was ultimately a midseason replacement that aired only seven episodes in the spring
of 2008, freeing up Greer to move on to better things.
Resurrection
Veronica Mars's hardcore fans couldn't let go, and neither could the show's talent . For
years after the cancellation, Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell mentioned the possibility
of a movie in interviews.
It seemed like a longshot for a studio to finance a big-screen version of a show very
few people watched.
“When are we going to do this whole Veronica Mars movie, huh.”
“I don’t know, you got a couple million dollars lying around?”
But then along came Kickstarter.
In March 2013, Thomas launched a campaign to finance the movie directly from fans.
Within 30 days, the project had collected an astonishing $5.7 million.
“Wait for it… ohhhhh.”
“Yeah”
“I love all 91 thousand of you.”
“From the whole cast, thank you so very much.”
Thomas took a screenplay and his Kickstarter money to Warner Bros., and the studio kicked
in a few more million to get the movie made.
It was released to theaters and to video-on-demand platforms in March 2014.
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