MovieChat Forums > Men of a Certain Age (2009) Discussion > Steve Koonin ordered cancellation!

Steve Koonin ordered cancellation!

posted 11 years ago by tbirdman-1
8 replies | jump to latest

For those fans of MOACA who were not aware of who canceled this
wonderful show well blame Steve Koonin who is executive in
charge of programming, scheduling, marketing & strategy at TNT,
TBS, TCM & True TV. Along with his west coast counterpart
Michael Wright. And Steve Koonin ordered the cancellation.
I read the online interview with Steve Koonin regarding
the decision to cancel the show. Well he cited cost as the
motivating factor. He says that it was the only time that
they disagreed and Michael Wright wanted to keep the show
in production for another season.

Koonin: "but truthfully,
we've only really disagreed once in years."

THR:About what? (the Hollywood Reporter)

Koonin: "Whether we should keep Men of A Certain Age on. We both
deeply loved the show, but we were the studio. If we were only
licensing it, we probably would have taken another run. Instead,
we were taking the full brunt of an extraordinarily expensive
show, and at the end of the day, I had to make a business call
that bothers me terribly."

And after reading his comments about how TNT is producing the
Dallas reboot, well the thought occurred to me that Mr. Koonin
figured that by canceling MOACA then the budget would be
stretched to provide more network funding to produce Dallas.
Now he did not state this officially in the article though he
is quite proud of being in charge at the network that airs
Dallas.

Well what really irks me is that Steve Koonin claims that MOACA
was an extraordinarily expensive cable show to have kept
producing though I disagree. Because in my honest opinion there
is no way that MOACA would have been more expensive to keep in
production compared to Dallas. The main cast members of Dallas
would be much more expensive to pay for salaries over the three
leads of MOACA. And TNT could have easily afforded to have
funded both cable dramas and kept MOACA on the air. Plus Dallas
is filmed on location in Texas while MOACA was shot entirely
in Los Angeles.

Steve Koonin also claims that MOACA was canceled to make room
for Dallas on Monday nights though both shows could have and
should have been accommodated for the network's prime time
schedule! And in his position in charge of network scheduling
and strategy then Steve Koonin could have easily found a
night and time slot for MOACA!

This show was my favorite cable drama when it premiered in
2009 and another stupid blunder on the network's part was
when the second season was split into two parts instead of
keeping it as one full season. Obviously this was done to
save budget. When MOACA debuted it averaged 3 million viewers
per episode though ratings really slid in season 2 when
the numbers slid down to 2 million viewers per episode and
the ratings never recovered back to original numbers. So now
other fans of this wonderful cable drama know the real nitty
gritty about why MOACA was cancelled in 2011.

Lorenzo Sunny Arizona

Call me a sailor or a swabby just don't call me a squid!

[–] stanleyhetz 11 years ago

For those fans of MOACA who were not aware of who canceled this
wonderful show well blame Steve Koonin who is executive in
charge of programming, scheduling, marketing & strategy at TNT,
TBS, TCM & True TV. Along with his west coast counterpart
Michael Wright. And Steve Koonin ordered the cancellation.
I read the online interview with Steve Koonin regarding
the decision to cancel the show. Well he cited cost as the
motivating factor. He says that it was the only time that
they disagreed and Michael Wright wanted to keep the show
in production for another season.

Koonin: "but truthfully,
we've only really disagreed once in years."

THR:About what? (the Hollywood Reporter)

Koonin: "Whether we should keep Men of A Certain Age on. We both
deeply loved the show, but we were the studio. If we were only
licensing it, we probably would have taken another run. Instead,
we were taking the full brunt of an extraordinarily expensive
show, and at the end of the day, I had to make a business call
that bothers me terribly."

And after reading his comments about how TNT is producing the
Dallas reboot, well the thought occurred to me that Mr. Koonin
figured that by canceling MOACA then the budget would be
stretched to provide more network funding to produce Dallas.
Now he did not state this officially in the article though he
is quite proud of being in charge at the network that airs
Dallas.

Well what really irks me is that Steve Koonin claims that MOACA
was an extraordinarily expensive cable show to have kept
producing though I disagree. Because in my honest opinion there
is no way that MOACA would have been more expensive to keep in
production compared to Dallas. The main cast members of Dallas
would be much more expensive to pay for salaries over the three
leads of MOACA. And TNT could have easily afforded to have
funded both cable dramas and kept MOACA on the air. Plus Dallas
is filmed on location in Texas while MOACA was shot entirely
in Los Angeles.

Steve Koonin also claims that MOACA was canceled to make room
for Dallas on Monday nights though both shows could have and
should have been accommodated for the network's prime time
schedule! And in his position in charge of network scheduling
and strategy then Steve Koonin could have easily found a
night and time slot for MOACA!

This show was my favorite cable drama when it premiered in
2009 and another stupid blunder on the network's part was
when the second season was split into two parts instead of
keeping it as one full season. Obviously this was done to
save budget. When MOACA debuted it averaged 3 million viewers
per episode though ratings really slid in season 2 when
the numbers slid down to 2 million viewers per episode and
the ratings never recovered back to original numbers. So now
other fans of this wonderful cable drama know the real nitty
gritty about why MOACA was cancelled in 2011.

MOACA had the misfortune of not being around early enough to have Koonin's sentimental attachment.

[–] tbirdman-1 11 years ago

Yes Stanley,

I so agree and too bad for the cast and crew that there was no
series finale to tie up the storylines and finish up any loose
ends to the wonderful show that you, me and so many others
had enjoyed watching. And by the way our Cox cable grid here
is very limited and we don't get TNT, TBS or TCM though I am
planning to switch back to satellite. We had Dish when I
first moved here and I would like to go to Direct TV. Cable
really sucks and one of my roommates pays for it and so I
really have no choice but to watch the channels that we do
receive here.

Lorenzo Sunny Arizona

Call me a sailor or a swabby just don't call me a squid!

[–] stanleyhetz 11 years ago

Yes Stanley,

I so agree and too bad for the cast and crew that there was no
series finale to tie up the storylines and finish up any loose
ends to the wonderful show that you, me and so many others
had enjoyed watching. And by the way our Cox cable grid here
is very limited and we don't get TNT, TBS or TCM though I am
planning to switch back to satellite. We had Dish when I
first moved here and I would like to go to Direct TV. Cable
really sucks and one of my roommates pays for it and so I
really have no choice but to watch the channels that we do
receive here.

Koonin's cancellation of this show still rubs me the wrong way. All the best shows get cancelled.

Have you ever looked into FTA satellite? If you're not familiar with that, it stands for Free To Air.

[–] tbirdman-1 11 years ago

Wow FTA satellite? Now I am so unfamiliar and have never heard of
that before though will definitely be looking into it. And thank
you for the suggestion.

Lorenzo Sunny Arizona

Call me a sailor or a swabby just don't call me a squid!

[–] stanleyhetz 11 years ago

Wow FTA satellite? Now I am so unfamiliar and have never heard of
that before though will definitely be looking into it. And thank
you for the suggestion.

I have never used Free To Air satellite, so I don't have any real personal experience, but I have been slowly (over time) buying some of the equipment to get hooked up. FTA just means that you can pick up satellite channels that have not been encrypted. From what I understand, you can get some interesting channels from the United States and around the world with FTA equipment. I have never dealt with this company, so I cannot vouch for them, but they seem to have some good questions and answers about FTA here: http://www.shop4fta.com/free-to-air-faq.php

[–] stanleyhetz 11 years ago

I have never used Free To Air satellite, so I don't have any real personal experience, but I have been slowly (over time) buying some of the equipment to get hooked up. FTA just means that you can pick up satellite channels that have not been encrypted. From what I understand, you can get some interesting channels from the United States and around the world with FTA equipment. I have never dealt with this company, so I cannot vouch for them, but they seem to have some good questions and answers about FTA here: http://www.shop4fta.com/free-to-air-faq.php

I want to see stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HW9adZmFhI

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] stanleyhetz 11 years ago

I want to see stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HW9adZmFhI

And this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btaxVFtatwM, because I love that kind of stuff.