The CW Cancels ‘The Messengers’

Photo: Chris White

I can now add The CW to my list of networks I will no longer watch new shows on.

After just three episodes, the network has decided to cancel “The Messengers,” a sci-fi/apocalyptic drama. One of the show’s stars is Joel Courtney, who also starred in one of my favorite films Super 8 as well as Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn. The only bright side to this is The CW is so “graciously” allowing the series to play out before its end as opposed to pulling the plug now.

“The Messengers” has had low ratings and so-so reviews from the start. For what it’s worth, the series did receive a 7.2/10 rating on IMDb. I believe that a lot of the series’ downfall was out of its creators’ control, however. The CW placed the show on an impossible Friday night time slot. In addition, there has been very little in the way of advertising for the series. I’ve seen countless comments on social media from people saying that they had never heard of “The Messengers” before. No wonder. I personally have only seen a few ads online and not a single commercial.

I checked The CW’s Facebook page and there are multiple posts about the network’s other shows. How many posts did I see about “The Messengers” you may ask? One. Back in late April. It’s now May 7. But then The CW cancels it under the excuse of “low ratings” when, in my opinion, network execs basically gave up on the show before it even aired its first episode. Why go through with filming the show? It boggles my mind how some networks give the green light to a series and then place it into a position to fail with little advertising, etc. A fairly similar situation happened with “Surviving Jack” on FOX last year – another show I was highly upset about getting canceled.

Of course, with nine episodes remaining, there’s still a glimmer of hope for “The Messengers.” Perhaps by another network or online service picking up the series. And with the uproar on social media happening just in the first few hours after the news of its cancellation, one can’t help to hold out that hope.

Click here to sign a petition for “The Messengers” to be picked up elsewhere. Also, make sure to contact The CW and your local affiliate to voice your opinion about this.