TNT made the wrong call

I saw an article mentioning that Proof was gone. I didn't know it was on. Because the article mentioned Callum Blue was in the caste and I haven't seen him in anything since his Dead Like Me (playing Mason) I tried the Proof pilot. I got drawn into watching the whole season which I finished last night. A few comments.

Is this a replay Firefly? Probably not. I doubt that the cancellation of Proof will inspire the same level of fan response as the prematurely aborted Firefly did but...perhaps the lesson there is that sometimes a show doesn't find its audience right off the mark. Sometimes it takes the writers and producers and actors a few episodes to find the right groove. Sometimes the suits managing things from above need to use a little imagination adapting to the evolving global market for entertainment, in this case the TV version.

According to that article Proof was cancelled by TNT because its ratings were on the low side - about 2 million at the end and the viewers tended to an older demographic. This is a glass half full vs half empty situation. Instead of being so trigger happy to cancel a new show the decision makers at TNT need to consider that there is a broad fragmentation of the TV audience taking place globally - it's not just about the US/Canada. Also achieving an audience concentration (e.g. 10 plus million for five plus seasons) for a fixed schedule TV show in the US is going to become increasingly difficult. In this new market taking shape the initial fixed program audience must be supplemented by monetization into other pathways e.g. abroad (before series conclusion), streaming options (Netflix may not be an enemy), and iTunes like options.

Proof was not perfect at its pilot and wasn't by the last of the 10 episodes, but I saw a lot of promise. I particularly liked Modine and Beals. Modine brought his character to life - very likable. Beals I hadn't seen since her Flashdance role decades before. Beals' performance here was impressive. The lady can act and that's not to put down the fine performances of the rest of the caste. She just stood out.

And the finale episodes show evidence that the writers knew the show was over so they crafted an ending that worked both as a end point for the series and a set up leaving me wanting to see what would come next. The set up looked like it would be focused around the two Modine and Beals supported by their team - Gathegi and Kaplan. Modine would be struggling against his terminal illness and his well-meaning sister while Beals would be freed of her mundane hospital career free to pursue her investigations.

This show was likely pitched as a way to tap into the same profit vein for the supernatural as prior shows have successfully done. Ghost Whisperer comes to mind with 107 episodes over 5 seasons, Medium at 130 over 7, and Touched by an Angel - as far as Hollywood is concerned an alien program beamed that one here from another dimension - flyover country - managed 211 over 9 seasons. Canada managed The Collector with 40 over 3 seasons.

TNT you dropped the ball here.