There's a Deeper Story Behind Barons Cancelation Halfway Through Season 1
The promising show was canceled without warning.
Just a decade ago, The CW was considered one of the best destinations for teen dramas, with hit series like Arrow, The Vampire Diaries, and Supernatural drawing millions of viewers to their home screens. But those days are long gone, and the previously successful network is struggling to get its viewership back.
As soon as the new management came in, The CW began to cut costs across the board, canceling underperforming older shows and refusing to even give promising newcomers a chance. In particular, shows like The Winchesters and Gotham Knights got canceled after their first seasons this year alone.
However, it looks like Australian drama Barons just suffered an even worse fate than the aforementioned blockbusters. The seemingly promising story of two rival surfer clans was canceled by The CW in its first season, with fans only getting to see four of the show's eight episodes before producers pulled the plug on the project. But why did that happen?
First of all, it looks like American audiences were simply not interested in following the lives of politically obsessed Australian surfers, as both of those subjects don't normally appeal to many people in the States. The CW producers simply bet on the wrong show when they bought the rights to Barons, so they canceled it when they realized their mistake.
Second, Barons' ratings were nothing short of abysmal, as the pilot episode drew only 179 thousand viewers and a horrendous 0.0 demo rating. The second episode was watched by 124 thousand viewers, and the overall rating was a ridiculous 0.03 by the time the show was canceled.
It's widely known that The CW's new management is canceling any show that's not getting decent viewership numbers, and it looks like Barons' performance was so lame that the producers decided not to waste their time slots for another four weeks and canceled the series on the spot.
Even though more than 100 thousand Americans watched the show, it's not like anyone would really miss Barons, as its mediocre 5.6 rating on IMDb certainly proves. Without a doubt, The CW should be more careful in acquiring shows in the future.