They could never figure out what audience they were trying to appeal to.
You had only a handful of people with useful skill-sets (Josh, Ernesto, Red, Cal and Rob) who could actually build and work.
Then you had generally useless people (Bri, Chris, Mike, Aaron, Dave, Hex, Dedecker) who couldn't do much besides just hang out and/or start trouble.
There was never a real way for these people to co-exist long term.
What skill set does Rob have?
shareHunting/fixing things/knew how to take care of cows and chickens...
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Are we talking about the same Rob? The Rob I saw wasn't doing any of that.
shareYou're right. I saw Red even though you clearly typed Rob sorry.
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No problem. Yes, Red was handy but the guy had a hairpin trigger. Too unpredictable to keep around. Plus he decided he didn't want to be part of the group multiple times. Again that is something you wouldn't want in this kind of situation.
shareWhat killed it for me was expecting a PBS quality program on Fox TV. Silly me. The show was not earnest, lacked focus and integrity. It chose stereotypes as cast members and appeared to create non-issues--like a typical reality show. I expected more, didn't get it, so I'm indifferent to it's cancellation.
What I'd speculate killed it for the majority of viewers was that there was no prize or weekly "winner" or "cast-out". They didn't see a "point" to it.
No, what killed this show was hideous casting.
You can have some amateur actors, and you can have some unlikeable villains. But every single person was 100% grade A thoroughly unlikeable actors with no skill.
Casting company or crew should be blacklisted at Fox.
I agree it was the casting that turned people off from the beginning. The "actors" were thoroughly grating to each other and the audience. People just didn't connect with the "actors". Hopefully they got paid well for their 2 months on the show.
shareNot just was there not a way to co-exist, but there was not a clear goal.
You said it yourself, there were some people with practical useful skills, while some people were just socializing, they all had different ideas of what Utopia should be.
It was a good idea. A very fun and different idea. But there is no doubt it tried to be Big Brother without BEING Big Brother and there was no focus.
A great idea ruined by production who had no real focus or vision for the show in the long run, which is why the rules and stipulations changed so much in like two months.
By the end, there was clearly no focus to the show other than a generic make-over. The original U.S. version of Big Brother was a turd but, unlike CBS, who rode it out, FOX - predictably - shut it down along with their other flop shows.
Bad casting. Most of the cast were dull and uninteresting. The first few episodes were people throwing tantrums. They needed to cast more interesting, slightly more mentally stable people. The musician for example, I didn't even notice he was around generally. Except for Bri's soft core scenes.
The host was quite boring and made it look like cheap.
The show just didn't have the right vibe. The show needed tighter editing. A bit of music, a better voice over and something to create adversary.
Everyone is bringing up some great points about what went wrong with Utopia: poor casting, unfocused direction, BB knockoff, etc. but may I add that I think Fox was the wrong network for this show. The idea we were presented with, a group a strangers co-existing in new world living off the land and using their skills to survive was actually quite a great one but thy failed in the execution. I imagine the Discovery Channel would have been a more fitting place for an experiement like this. They did a decent job with their other show The Colony and I imagine they would have cast people who could have made could have made the show something worth watching as opposed to hot headed characters who blew their tops faster than you could say Ramen noodles.
Yeah, FOX is the wrong network for any kind of legit reality show. They have garbage, cheap, trashy "reality" shows that are designed as trainwrecks with nutcases, like "Hells Kitchen."
I'd have loved to see ABC or CBS produce a show like this. It would have fared better.
Not even ABC or CBS. I personally think this kind of year long social experiement would have been better suited for a cable network or even PBS, at least the kind of show most of us were expecting. What we got was an utter disappointment and I sincerely hope that another network tries this in the future even in a smaller capacity. Hell, I think the BBC could totally pull this off.
shareI think I agree with what everyone else said. Biggest for me was useless and unlikable characters. It's possible that the editing made them all so unappealing...but then that means the direction of this series was just wrong from the get go. There's no way I'd watch any of these people for an entire year. On top of that the voting people out and getting new people in seemed ridiculous...the people they chose to bring in were just more unlikable stereotypes.
Ultimately this series had no sense of fun and that's what killed it I think.
I typed this in another thread.
It ended up being a terrible show. It had a lot of potential, but just plain wasn't interesting enough to be a hit. The producers let the show go in the wrong direction. Firstly, they casted a bunch of people who they would not get along. Can't really form a society of what 14 people, when you know those people have drastically different points of view.
Then, instead of making the people actually come together as a group and work to build the area, the producers let them have the weekend get togethers or w/e they were to make money to buy food. They should have been given a few food staples every week, but if the utopians wanted more, then they should have come together and really get a garden going, raise some chickens, etc. Not just live off of another society.
One last thing, did anyone really want to see Rob get married there? I sure as hell didn't. It wasted 2 episodes(?) which made them so boring to watch.