Syfy Abruptly Cancels Eureka – Wil Wheaton Not Amused [UPDATED]

Today the Syfy channel confirmed earlier reports (and reversed itself from a statement last week) and officially cancelled Eureka, which currently features Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Wil Wheaton in a recurring role. The decision to many by surprise, including Wheaton and the cast. See below for the official Syfy statement and Wil’s reaction.

 

Syfy abruptly cancels Eureka – Wil Wheaton not amused

Eureka, Syfy’s light-hearted sci-fi show about a town fully of zany scientists, is currently airing the second half of their fourth season. The 13-episode fifth season is just wrapping up filming in Canada, and that will air in 2012 (with a Christmas special this year). Last week it was reported that Syfy had ordered six more episodes for a sixth season and at the time Syfy denied rumors that those episodes would be the end for the show. However today Syfy reversed their position and cancelled the show (along with the six episodes for season six).

They released the following statement:

After painstaking consideration, we have had to make the difficult business decision to not order a season six of Eureka. But Eureka is not over yet. There is a new holiday episode this December and 12 stellar episodes set to debut next year, marking its fifth season and six memorable years on Syfy. The 2012 episodes are some of the best we’ve seen, and will bring this great series to a satisfying end. We are very grateful to Bruce Miller and Jaime Paglia, their team of incredible writers, and an amazing cast and crew who have consistently delivered a series we continue to be very proud of. We thank the fans for their support of this show and know they will enjoy its final season in 2012.

Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Wil Wheaton has joined the show as a recurring character for the current Season 4.5 and is back for Season 5 as well. Today on his blog he wrote about Syfy’s  decision, noting in part:

It turns out that the network formerly-known as Sci-Fi changed its mind, and took back the six episode sixth season. Eureka will have to wrap up season five and the entire series with the episode that starts filming on Thursday. I know they’ll have to do some rewriting, so I’m hopeful that Bob Newhart is available.

At this point, I know as much as you do, because I found out the same way you did. I’m trying really hard not to be upset with the network for issuing a statement to the press before the cast knew, so we wouldn’t have to find out the way we did; as you can imagine, it isn’t exactly easy.

Wil goes on to praise and thank those he has had a chance to work with on Eureka, more at Wheaton’s blog.


Dr. Parrish (Wil Wheaton) faces off with Dr. Fargo (Neil Grayston) as Dr. Marten (Felicia Day) looks on

UPDATE: Syfy adds one more episode

EOnline reports that Syfy has ordered an additional episode for season 5 (airing Spring 2012) so the producers of Eureka can wrap up the show.

 

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Sy-Fi sucks. This was their best show in my opinion. Big mistake. I guess that creates more room for things that do not belong on the station, like Wrestling. Just rename it USA-2 Channel and get it over with NBC.

Syfy really has been getting worse and worse.

I’ve just about had it with SyFy! They cancel all their good shows. Ugh!

I can’t believe they are canceling this show. It is one of their best shows right now.

Yay, more wrasslin’ shows! :-P

Eureka was just not meeting the low standards SyFy expects from its shows. So disappointing.

To the MBAs who run that travesty of a channel: May all your sushi be from north eastern Japanese waters.

One of their best show, I wonder if another wrestling show beat it out

SyFy is doing its darnedest to be like Fox.

I guess the suits had to make room for their new Monday night series…Ghost Hunting Wrestlers of the Paranormal. I’m beginning to think that the word “Not” needs to be added to the beginning of the station’s name.

I, for one, will miss the quirky and entertaining residents of Eureka.

And give ’em hell, Will. They deserve it!

Pretty much stopped watching that channel years ago. This just proves the point.

SyFy’s killing their best stuff by taking it away from their fans. If they kept shows like Eureka and Warehouse 13 on a normal one-day streaming delay, their fans would watch it in a medium that they could make money off of. Instead, they’re holding them to the end of the season, when everybody who wants to watch it will have already pirated it.

Then they cancel the shows because ratings are dropping. It may well be this decade’s version of the antics Fox got up to to kill shows in the early 2000s.

You had to know when it went from Sci-Fi to SyFy, it was going from Scienec Fiction to… NOT science Fiction. NBC just couldn’t kill itself, it had to be murder suicide… I mean suycyde.

This is ridiculous. I can’t beleive they canceled Eureka – the “SyFy channel sucks the big one. The channel is showing their true colors in choosing low brow product over fun and enjoyable dramedy. There is little reason to continue to watch a station with so little insight into what their audience is looking for.

Star Trek predicted the future… when Voyager had The Rock guest star.

Hey SyFy! Wil Wheaton says “don’t be a dick!”

First you end the day after streaming of Warehouse 13 episodes and now this!

Frackin’ dicks!

Cool. Maybe Sci Fi (proper) can just scrub everything and go with reality shows and WWF. Idiots.

Sci-Fi (as it once was) canceeld SG-1 after they had it for five years. They cancelled (out of the blue) SG:Atlantis after five seasons. I’m not really surprised that they axed Eureka after five seasons. SyFy most have a thing against shows going onto a sixth season.

WOW this STINKS big time.
This “network” has been racing downhill and is picking up speed!!
A FAR cry from what it was.

See…? This is why I rarely get into shows anymore as it always seems the ones I like end of being cancelled, usually right away like Flash Forward, but ultimately after a few seasons. I’m half expecting Warehouse 13 to suddenly get cancelled, too. Not much left on this network for me to watch now.

Syfy is really becoming less sci-fi and more drek…

Just who the hell is running the networks down in the States? And who the hell are the people watching the crap that the networks put out? It seems to be more about stupid reality shows and cookie-cutter “talent” shows!

Never watched “Eureka”, but science fiction shows being cancelled out of the blue due to network incompetence leaves me nervous about CBS handling a potential new “Star Trek” series!

It’s what happens when you have bean counters instead of showbiz folks in charge.

I quit watching “that channel” when they did the name change….so glad to see I made the right call.

@20. Well you guys north of us fired Terry Grant from Mantracker — unforgivable — I love that guy!

They canned Eureka?? Oh thank God!

Now they have more budget for DinoCrock VS Sharkasourous part 2!!

To #20: I have only two words for you…………..

Amen, brother!

I am done with the syfy channel. They barely even show syfy at this point. Wrestling,Ghosthunters are not science fiction. Just change the name of the channel at this point!

They should not cancel a good show like Eureka. Now how long will it be before they cancel Warehouse 13?

I gave up on SyFy a long time ago.

Don’t know about other parts of the world, but BBC America has a much better selection of science fiction than SyFy ever thought of having (even though most are reruns) with Star Trek: The Next Generation, The X-Files, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, and all sorts of sci-fi, action and adventure movies.

Hey, leave it to the Brits!

Hey, let’em know how you feel about this cancellation. Trekkers have saved shows more than once. :)

Sallie Schoneboom
Senior Vice President, Publicity
212-664-3467
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NBC Universal runs the SyFy Channel just as well as they run NBC.

“Chuck” anyone?

First Caprica, then Stargate Universe, now Eureka.

At this rate there won’t be any science fiction left on that channel.

Farscape…and now Eureka…smh…

#22.

No offense, but “Mantracker” sucked!

One more nail in television’s coffin. Please keep canceling the (few) good shows (remaining) so that TV dies faster. Then the vast array of under-appreciated and under-funded web series creators can have the spotlight, instead of wrestling, Cops re-runs and Jersey Shore.

Could they turn it into a wrestling show? Everybody looks good in a onesie.

*shrug* never watched it so i dont know what i was missing. pretty much only watch USA, TnT, Nick and CC when not watching the news…

Blech. My condolences to my fellow geeks in the US. I wish you guys could get Space channel, at least they still show actual scifi.

@33: I don’t know about that, it seems to me more like good TV is getting better (viva HBO and AMC!), and bad TV is getting worse (reality TV, ’nuff said).

SyFy has lost its core audience preferring schlocky weekly end-of-the-world and B monster movies that make the stuff from the 50s look good; movies with cartoon FX over anything with substance. They are going with the notion that the core science fiction audience doesn’t matter anymore and play to the least common denominator.Where does wrestling fit in with Science Fiction? I mean, yeah, it’s fiction, but… and when will they start broadcasting NASCAR?
Anyone else missing the Stargates and BSG and the quality stuff? I sure as hell don’t watch ‘reality’ shows, especially when the ‘reality’ has anything to do with ghosts.
@29 Up-chuck anyone?

Could that channel get any more un-science fiction. Cm’on NBC! Get with it! Eureka was one of the best shows it had and now they tank it. Stupid idiots!

SyFy, NBC and Universal are all clueless. I love Eureka! I also loved SGU and Farscape! The network is called SyFy. It should be showing shows like the Outer Limit, Amazing Stories, Space 1999, Star Trek, BSG, Dr. WHo, Space Above and Beyond, The Twilight zone, Wild Wild West, Earth Final Conflict, The Thunderbirds and the list could go on and on. That does not include WWE wrestling. If I want shows about things women enjoy I put on Lifetime. I want to learn the best way to cook risotto, I put on the Food Network, remodeling my bath, HGTV or DIY. So why is is so hard for SyFy to figure out what they should broadcast. We are all just UNHEARD!

SyFy should know that they’re probably never going to have a show like BSG again. What they have now that’s good is what they need to stand behind. Ive seen plenty of shows that were nothing more than crap on there and, though I’ve never watched Eureka, I’ve heard good things. Plus that’s just not classy to not tell the cast before the press.

They changed their name to SyFy because they wanted to keep the sound of SciFi without being committed to that as the subject matter of their channel. Some sack thought it was a good idea, and the other sacks around the table nodded like they thought so too; some of ’em may even have had pangs of jealousy that they didn’t think of that stupid idea first.

“Science Fiction is just too narrow a focus for us, and let’s face it, none of us knows what the hell that SciFi crap is about anyway. So let’s change the name but keep the SOUND, and we’ll put on wrestling because that’s not real either so it meshes.”

Canceled all 3 Stargates (2 of them after 5 seasons as well I might add), the only thing really keeping me to Syfy was Eureka – I guess I’ll be tuning into BBC America for some Doctor Who, TNG and BSG goodness now….

(if only some network would show reruns of seaQuest!)

NO!!!!!

You get rid of the cream and keep the crap!!! Seriously!

This is just the perfect end to a really [EXPLETIVE DELETED] day!’

Please be a prank, Please be a Prank, Please Be A Prank……………

A reality show, which is much less expensive to produce. That’s the “reality” of it. I would hope Sigh Figh viewers will leave the channel to punish decisions like this. Please don’t reward them by watching their crap anyway.

I didn’t watch every episode but it was a fun show. Didn’t take itself too seriously.

I’m doing my best Nancy Kerrigan right now. WHY!!
@#!$%! This is Stargate Atlantis AAALLLL over again. Come on! This is EUREKA! *Fargo voice*

Can’t say I ever watched Eureka very much. Ever since they started that 10 episodes here, 12 over there, see you in a year or two crap with SG-1 and BSG; I only made an effort to watch those and SGA.

ABC tried to copy them, killed off “V” just when it got good.

SGU became such a chore, never could get interested. Moving schedules, seasons, nights, times…it was like they DARED you to try to watch.

Between bulls–t wrestlers and crappy C monster movies TRYING to look like good B movies of the 1950’s; this channel HAS JUST GOT TO BE A TAX WRITE OFF, OR..A SCAM!

Anyone remember Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in “The Producers”?

This means he will be free to reprise the role of Wesley Crusher, President of the Federation.

:)

SY-FY, you don’t know your audience. We prefer this over “SUPER-SHARK VS. GIANT SQUID”.

Just like the majority of the comments on this page, I am very disappointed. Eureka is (soon to was) a fun to watch. They always have little nods to science fiction shows of the past. I agree, after it goes, we don’t have much. More crap. I guess I need to look into the expanded cable package in my town. At least I can start seeing what Dr. Who is about and watch a quality T.V. show like Sherlock Holmes. See ya Eureka…its been…fun…..oh my…