Why Was ‘Veronica Mars’ Canceled?

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Veronica Mars lasted for three seasons on UPN and the CW before the show was canceled. It was brought back for a crowdfunded movie before finally returning for a fourth season on Hulu. Veronica Mars is phenomenal, so why was it canceled in the first place? This post has spoilers for the first three seasons of Veronica Mars. 

‘Veronica Mars’ Was Canceled for Low Ratings after UPN & WB Merged To Become CW

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Veronica Mars takes place in the wealthy city of Neptune, California. In the first seasons, Veronica was in high school and her father, Keith Mars, was a former (and disgraced) police chief who is now a private detective. The show is a mystery drama, with the first season centering around the murder mystery of Veronica’s best friend Killy Kane. Keith was kicked out as sheriff after he accused Lilly’s dad, Jake Kane, of being involved in his daughter’s death. Veronica eventually discovers that Abel Koontz, who confessed to Lilly’s murder, is innocent.

In Season 2, she investigates a bus accident that kills several students from her school, and also investigates the death of a member of the PCH biker gang, Felix Toombs. Logan is blamed for Felix’s death, but he’s innocent. Veronica discovers the identity of the person who raped her in a season that, once again, deals with some pretty heavy themes.

In Season 3, Veronica’s now a freshman in Neptune’s Hearst College. Veronica investigates a serial rapist in Hearst and the murder of the college’s dean.

After Season 3, Veronica Mars was canceled. The show was critically acclaimed and a cult favorite, but it had low ratings, Washington Post shared. It had 2.5 million viewers per episode, but it just wasn’t enough. (At the time, Veronica Mars was scheduled against powerhouse American Idol, which didn’t help matters, Looper shared.)

The show started on UPN and then was part of the brand-new CW network that merged WB and UPN. But it needed more viewers to survive on the new network. Ratings were improving, but in January 2007 it was announced that the show’s third season would go on hiatus during February sweeps. In its place, Pussycat Dolls Present, a reality series, would air. That series only lasted two seasons.

The last five episodes of Season 3 aired after the hiatus. At a 2007 CW Upfront in May 2007, the news was dropped that the show wasn’t coming back. The show wasn’t on the network’s fall lineup. Rob Thomas suggested a midseason replacement with an older Veronica at the FBI, but CW passed. Dawn Ostroff, CW President, said the show wasn’t coming back “in any form.”

Reality Shows Were Preferred at the Time, but Fans Later Crowdfunded a Movie to Help the Show Return

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In the end, low ratings combined with a push for more reality television seems to be what ended Veronica Mars the first time. It’s interesting, since the show is so popular that it came back for a crowdfunded movie and now a fourth season on Hulu. (It’s worth noting the Gilmore Girls was also canceled in 2007 after seven seasons. It was a WB show canceled after its final season on The CW. The show was later revived with a short series on Netflix.)

Fans weren’t ready to let Veronica Mars go. After years of Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell teasing the show’s return in the form of a movie, “Marshmallows” (Mars fans) donated $5.7 million to a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new movie. Warner Bros. had said that Thomas could do the movie if he could raise $2 million, and fans more than doubled that call. The movie was released in 2014.

Thomas told the Washington Post: “It’s strange how much momentum there was being off the air for seven years…We were never on the cover of magazines when we were on the air … seven years later, we’re on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. It made my head spin.”

The movie took place seven years after Season 3. Veronica was a lawyer in New York City but returns to Neptune when Logan is accused of murdering his girlfriend.