MovieChat Forums > Kyle XY (2006) Discussion > The real reason it was cancelled.

The real reason it was cancelled.

posted 14 years ago by matthewsean1701
24 replies | jump to latest

Hi All,

I didn't see a thread addressing this so I thought I'd chime in. I was an avid follower of the show like the majority of you here. And like you was sad that they discontinued it, and the way they did it too. I mean a rushed and crappy ending would have been better than no ending. And to rub salt in the wound is their ridiculous reasoning:

When they announced the cancellation I went to their site to get more info because (at least as far as I can recall) it was in fact doing quite well ratings-wise.

ABC Family's official story was that they had made a decision to shift the demographic they were trying to target from families to teenage girls specifically. In making this decision they felt that Kyle didn't fit within their new target and so they just abruptly cut it short where it was at, aired the remaining episodes that were already filmed and then replaced it with the show about the teenage girl who got pregnant.

Now I'm a 35 year old man but it seems to me that despite the fact that the show had a very definite scifi slant to it the show was still focused around a group of teenagers and many of the real life issues that teens deal with. Not to mention that the title character is the proverbial teen heartthrob. It seems to me that plenty of teen girls probably liked this show. I know for a fact that my teenage niece loved for sure.

Not only was that disrespectful to their viewers but also the cast and crew who abruptly found themselves out of work with no warning.

Suffice it to say I abruptly stopped watching ABC family at that point just like many of you. To close I'm curious. Are any of you fans of the show on these boards teenage girls? If not then maybe I'm wrong and ABC is right on that point.

Somehow I doubt it though. The floor is now yours...

[–] pinta70 13 years ago

If the network wanted to cater to a new audience/demographic, they should have changed their name from ABC F-A-M-I-L-Y. Idiots!

[–] la_cinematheque 11 years ago

What's now ABC Family was originally a christian network called The Family Channel. It was sold sometime in the late 90s with the clause that it would always retain the word family in the name (which is why it was called Fox Family before the current name). They can't change it.

[–] scatter_brained4 12 years ago

I was a teenager when I saw this. I ended up not finishing the series because we got rid of dish, but I loved the show. Now I'm 20 and watching it on netflix and wow, I can't believe they just cancled it just like that :/ that was a bad move on their part. I'm a female btw

[–] iluvbairs 12 years ago

I'm a girl and I was 21 when this show started, and I loved it. I watched every episode of every season as it aired and was so upset when it was cancelled that I stopped watching ABC Family for awhile. I did have the misfortune of seeing an episode of The Secret Life... which replaced Kyle XY. I despised that show and was so disappointed that an interesting show like Kyle XY was replaced by that trash. I hate when shows are cancelled and have no option of wrapping up. At least the network seemed to learn their lesson with Greek. I appreciate that they actually gave the show another partial season to wrap-up their storylines. I'm still bitter that Kyle XY didn't even get a "movie" to just finish the series, even if it didn't resolve everything.

[–] Mousuke 12 years ago

Well, I'm not a teenager but I am a girl and I have just started watching it on LoveFilm. I'm enjoying it and came here precisely to find out whether it has a proper ending or not. Needless to say I am disappointed to read this.

I would have thought that this is exactly the kind of show they would want if they are trying to appeal to teenage girls - sure, it isn't just a teenage show but a handsome teenage boy appears from nowhere, and he's slightly broken and angsty - they could easily have started up an advertising campaign to try and cash in on the Twilight/ Vampire Diaries demographic and still kept the same series without losing the family aspect (shocking news - teenage girls have families too!)

The lute is the coolest of all medieval stringed instruments.

[–] IronZombie 12 years ago

The biggest fault this show had was that it was on ABC Family. It could've easily passed as a network show on Fox or NBC or any of those channels, so having it air on ABC Family was a huge mistake. Talk about inconsistent.. I mean you're talking about a channel that was formerly known as Fox Family.

Suffice to say, I never watched any ABC Family shows ever again. They abruptly lost my viewership when they showed they don't know how to handle their programs.
---
Idiots

[–] DaB6384 12 years ago

It was cancelled to make room for "The Secret Life Of The American Teenager", which is one of the most poorly written shows on television.

Karma has finally struck though, as it was announced that "Secret Life" has been cancelled. I hope it ends on a cliffhanger.

[–] KDTfiles6 12 years ago

Female, early 20's when the show started. Didn't watch until part way thru season 1. Then about 4 eps into season 2 coudn't watch anymore becase they pulled the episodes off normal ABC station (didn't have cable at college, so had to watch online) and wait for the DVDs. Heck, at first I didn't even want to watch the show because I thought it WAS targeted at teenage girls, rather than a wider base.

What really sucks is that the network/studio had already told everyone they WERE getting a 4th season, so the writers stretched stuff out to make the "season" finale a cliffhanger... only to tell everyone - days after the filming ended on teh finale that the studio changed their minds and the show was getting cancled, AND that the studio wouldn't let them go back and reshoot the last couple episodes in an attempt to close up some holes... eventhough they had time to do it.

If that wasn't bad enough...

When the DVDs were announced the producers/writers were all like we're going to have a thing on the DVDs that would give viewers closure, tell where they were goign to go in season 4, where the show was headed, to where the show would have ended in seasons 4 and 5... Utter disapointment in the garbage they put together , it was super short, and more than Half of it covered the actual events in the series (your basic recap), and what "closure" they did try was pointless, vauge ideas of where they could have gone, and things they thought about maybe doing but hadn't really mapped anything out... soooooo wanted them to talk specifics, what affect did putting the poison in the tubes have on the project, could they still reproduce the liquid - files backed up somewhere or samples kept off site. what was Kyle's mother's full involvement, did she ever try and make contact after he escaped - when did she find out he was alive/out, would she go after kyle for what he did (in the finale), Cassidy & Kyle's relationship once he found out the truth, who did Kyle pick (their answer in the wrap up thing dissapoinging), were the Traigers in more danger now or were they safe..... but noooooooo, no closure, just questions :(.

I've watched the series on DVD a dozen times thru since it ended, but haven't rewatched the finale. can't seem to make myself watch it knowing it ends the way it did. Almost wish a network like the CW would have taken a chance on it and took it over, heck, they film alot of their stuff up in Vancouver so it isn't like they'd have to move production to fit the budget better.

DiNozzo: "Are we fighting?"
Ziva: "If we were. You'd be on the floor...Bleeding."

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] lildropofsunshine 9 years ago

Such a shame.

I fit into the ABC Family target demographic perfectly when Kyle XY aired (I was 15 1/2 at the time), and I am in no way a sci-fi or fantasy type person, but I couldn't wait to see the show once I saw the promos, and I watched it religiously...and then they stupidly cut it off! How can you end with the guy you think is the bad guy telling Kyle that they're brothers?

[–] 9 years ago

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