Why I think Drive failed...

like the other gut said
"um....no" the reson is that peolpe are stuiped and would rather see a stupied show like deal or no deal. Or watch Celibertys Dance like freeking idiots on Dancing with the Stars. Then watch a GOOD SHOW that has action, drama, cars, racing, and Nathan Fillion. Also i think Fox has a Vendetta with Nathan Fillion.

i know the truth sucks but it the truth is never pretty and nice
also FOx is full of dumbass's

Had it been a show like you described they would've lost viewers like me. So we essentially cancel each others viewership out :)

If I were to use your examples, I would venture that the demo that makes up 24 viewers is a larger group than Nash Bridges viewers. Ergo, Drive would've had an even smaller audience than it did if it went that route. Potentially making it a bigger flop than it was.

Of course if it went that route, it would've had to have been cast, directed, and marketed differently, and might've succeeded, albeit in a much smaller way than they were obviously aiming for.

In the end it's impossible to tell.

Drive failed for one reason and one reason only: Fox Executives are morons.

Drive was placed as a mid-season replacement and started during a time when most shows were in re-runs or winding up toward May sweeps. That's actually two blows against it from the get-go, since even though it was competing against a lot of re-runs, it's also a time that regular TV viewers tune-out a bit. Next, Fox started off by basically running 3 episodes in one week, which is great for viewers that are hooked in; but lousy if you want to allow 'buzz' to grow. Does anyone remember seeing promos for this? Hello, some networks are actually buying advertising on other networks to promote shows that are already successful. I don't think Drive had a decent, much less a successful promo campaign. Finally, they pulled the plug before the show had a chance to show how many people it could attract. By the time I had told all my friends to watch it was gone. And insult to injury, they run re-runs in its place instead of airing the episodes that were already made and paid for.

I'll say up front that I'm a Tim Minear and Nathan Fillion fan; but with that said, I was still a skeptic when I heard the show described as a "Canon Ball Run" update. I thought even Minear can't pull that one off; but I did enjoy that flick when I was a kid and I'm a loyal fan; so I checked it out. As a scriptwriter and filmmaker, I was amazed by how fast the show sucked me in. Within 10 minutes I wasn't watching Alex Tully; but the whole cast. I usually hate the first episodes of everything because the pace is slowed down by all the exposition. This show didn't have that problem; so it should have succeeded.

As for vendetta's... well, I'm not sure Fox has it in for Nathan Fillion specifically; but they sure seem to yank Tim Minear around more than his share and that has scooped Fillion into the damage as well a couple of times.

Fox needs new executives who have a clue about how to build viewership and how to promote and launch a new show.

In my mind, the show failed because it was too cluttered. It was hard to feel too connected to any of the characters because they were presented in such a choppy manner. I wanted to watch Fillion's struggles. I wanted to watch the soldier and his stupid girlfriend, I wanted to watch the mom, but trying to watch them all gave me a sense of schizophrenia (especially seeing as how I mentioned half of the story arcs in the show). It didn't begin with enough of a centralizing story. It began with a sort of shotgun approach to getting us involved and I was too frustrated to feel very dialed in.
That's my opinion at least.

What kind of IDIOT wants to watch a show about PEOPLE!?

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Amy Acker: She's Ackerific!
Phrase Copyright (c) Dan Corson

april is not a good time to premiere any show.
deciding that a mostly unadvertised show is not getting enough ratings after 2 episodes, and pulling the plug after the 4th had aired and 6th shot, also not a good idea.
airing those 2 missed episodes in july, instead of anywhere near when the show was still on the air, bad idea.
rescheduling the 2 episodes to a later date and not telling anyone, bad idea.

all fox's mistakes. not the show's not the writer's, not fillion's.
what sucks is that the one show that nathan fillion is in now, that probably won't be cancelled that same season, is desperate housewives.
well, we'll see how that turns out. maybe people have started hiring nathan to go around and clean out tv shows they don't want anymore.
that would suck, because he's an amazing actor, but that seems to be the recent trend.

I think it failed because there were too many story lines with too many people! The same could be said for the show Windfall; too many characters. I cant get into these kinda shows cuz everytime I pick a couple to stay with they cut to too many different stories, but not in a good soap opera kinda way. In Drive they should have kept it down to Nathan Fillion's story line and maybe two other couples. Then maybe it would have worked. I didn't pay enough attention to know if the script was really bad or not though.

this was the only Fox show in years I had ever gotten excited about. They had an amazing website, which they never advertised (BIG mistake), the show always had something going on and the commercials never gave too much away. I was so angry when they cancelled this. Fox never seems to keep anything worthwhile in their programming, hence why shows like Family Guy and Get Real among many many others have met their maker long before their time. Luckily Family Guy was brought back thanks to a powerful letter writing campaign. But now, in the time of the Writers Strike, everything's in reruns, too many reality shows, why not give us the opportunity to see the rest of it?! Do one kinda "catch up/refresher" episode so we can get back into it, then let it run its course. Its not like Fox has anything worthwhile on right now anyway right? I know a lot of people didnt like it, and thats their prerogative, but there are a ton of us out there who would LOVE to see how it all goes down..who ends up with the money? Does the father die? Does the wife tell her husband hes been called back to duty?! Does Nathan Fillions character get his wife back???!! WE NEED TO KNOW FOX!!! WE NEED TO KNOW!!!

I love a man with a southern drawl