“Saving Grace” is an unusual, quirky police drama that stars Academy Award winner Holly Hunter as a damaged Oklahoma City police detective. It’s been a critics’ darling since it debuted in 2007, and last season drew an audience of 3.7 million viewers to TNT every week. Yet the show's cancellation was announced in 2009 and it is now airing its final season, in large measure a victim of the bad economy.
Ironically, “Saving Grace” wasn’t cancelled by the network; it was shut down by Fox, the studio that produced the series. Artie Mandelberg, an executive producer of the series, said that TNT wanted “Grace” to continue, but wasn’t willing to increase the licensing fee it paid Fox.
Under normal circumstances, the studio might have been willing to absorb the additional costs, hoping for a larger payoff in ancillary sales. But DVD and foreign sales have been “generating far less money,” Mandelberg said, leaving the studio with little choice but to pull the plug.
“The economy has always dictated this business,” Mandelberg said. “Maybe more so now. Everyone is cutting back.”
He’s right. The tough economy hasn't left the glitzy world of television untouched. People are being laid off. Some shows have to do more with less. And cheaper-to-produce reality programs continue to be mainstays of network schedules.
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