Tru Calling

Tru Calling was an American television show, starring Eliza Dushku as Tru Davies. The series premiered in 2003 and first aired on the FOX Network.

Controversy and cancellation

Tru Calling has been cited by television critics, bloggers and science fiction fans as an example of a show that was not given time to find an audience or adequately develop its premise. In polar opposition, other sites refused to even cover the show in their "spoiler" listings, citing the show was too contrived and difficult to watch, and the addition of Jason Priestley to the cast arguably failed to increase ratings. Further hype and speculation was generated by the show's cliff-hanger ending at the end of season one, with the character Jack revealing himself to be Tru's evil nemesis, and even having a working relationship with her father.

Related Topics:
Spoiler - Jason Priestley

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After this cliffhanger, the show reached the point where spoilers and inquiries were hitting industry magazines, with the promise of great plot developments and a second season were published, but received dead air on actual Fox network television. Even more odd given the show's eventual fate is a Season One DVD release with commentary by an enthusiastic cast and crew talking up the second season of the show. Fox television could not decide what to do with Tru Calling, first renewing it for a second season, than shortening its length to 6 episodes, and promising and moving the show's second season airdate from November, 2004 to an undefined time in 2005. After storing the show's set for an indefinite amount of time, word finally arrived that it was getting torn down and Tru's fate appeared to be decided. In the end, Fox replaced it with another sci-fi genre entry, Point Pleasant, which suffered even lower ratings than Tru Calling.

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Finally, after almost a year hiatus, Fox Television started airing Tru Calling's last six filmed episodes, in place of Point Pleasant, which has been cancelled, on March 31, 2005. Ironically, these episodes have garnered better ratings than Point Pleasant during their run, with practically no advertising. And the six episodes also did very well in New Zealand during its run there in February and March.

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On April 20, 2005, it was announced that the sixth and final episode would not be shown on Fox and as such the series would end it's run one week early with the episode that was intended to be shown the next evening. The reason as cited above is because it was felt it would be peculiar to show an episode with a partial Christmas theme (the show was originally going to debut on November 4, making the 6th episode near Christmas) in late April. Instead, they showed in its slot two rerun episodes of The Simple Life.

Related Topics:
Christmas - The Simple Life

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Tru Calling's cancellation has added fuel to speculation and fear within the sci-fi community when it comes to network television, which has already suffered from abrupt cancellations of other genre shows by Fox and other networks, and trepidation about whether to watch sci-fi genre shows lest they not last more than one season. It also continued a pattern started by Fox of airing one or two seasons of a show, cancelling it, and releasing the show on DVD with many open-ended plotlines. Other genre shows on network television experiencing success, like Alias and Lost, may indicate this fear to be unfounded.

Related Topics:
Alias - Lost

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