Why TNT Should Pick Up Forever If ABC Passes on Season 2

The cancellations that hurt the most are when promising shows that’ve shown flashes of potential are cut down too soon. Although watching a show languish as a network tries to do everything to save it can be stomach churning, the most emotional renewal decisions come when a show is seemingly left for dead and forced to drag itself into the next television season. There’s nothing like the helpless feeling that comes when you realize a show you like, a show that has growth potential that its network just isn’t seeing, has shifted from being in the renewal running to simply playing out the string in hopes for a rating miracle. But the more complex the television industry has become, the more factors that go into renewal decisions and the greater the possibility that a show with a solid fan base can find a second life on another network.

ABC supernatural procedural Forever has been twisting in the wind in its Tuesday time slot for the better part of the season. After some promising initial ratings, including a special premiere behind Dancing with the Stars, the series quickly found itself with a consistent audience in an unforgiving time slot. Unfortunately, that audience, for a variety of reasons, wasn’t quite enough to put it in the same “foregone renewal” category as fellow ABC dramas Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, nor was the show advanced enough in age to get a syndication renewal like Nashville and (possibly) Revenge. Forever managed to patch one of the ugliest holes on the ABC schedule, increasing 74% in total viewers and 80% in the 18-49 demo over regular programming in the same slot last season, yet its renewal status is questionable at best, meaning that there might not be anything it could do in the final three episodes of the season to continue on ABC. Rather than allowing a show with a considerable amount of positives to have its life cut short by the cancellation gods, this is an instance where the television gods (and various TNT executives) should step up and save Forever from possible cancellation.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for Forever has been an incompatible lead-in, as Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD is a male-skewing, action-oriented drama whose own audience has collapsed this season. Were SHIELD as strong as it were last season, there might be enough casual viewership to keep Forever alive for a second season; however, the audience for SHIELD is small enough and skews differently enough from Forever (younger and male vs. older and female) that the latter simply isn’t benefitting from its lead-in. With the only lead-in that could give Forever a boost (Dancing with the Stars) likely occupied next season by Castle or a new procedural, the series is performing about as well as it could on ABC, given the circumstances it’s been dealt. But this isn’t a case of audience rejection, given that Forever has been gaining around 1.0 in Live + 7 numbers for the duration of this season and often doubles or comes close to doubling its Live + Same Day numbers; if anything, the DVR numbers show that there is audience watching this show that ABC hasn’t tapped into with a coherent night of scheduling, a problem that wouldn’t be an issue if TNT picks the show up following its possible cancellation. Were Forever on TNT, it wouldn’t be stranded on an island and forced to draw its own audience, nor would the DVR numbers it’s putting up be next to worthless. It would be surrounded by shows that target similar audiences, thereby helping the show reach those who might’ve missed it the first go-around on ABC, with TNT’s syndicated acquisitions (Castle, Grimm, etc.) helping to foster an atmosphere that’s kind to the humorous character-based procedural.

But why TNT? Why is this the network that should rescue Forever from the grips of cancellation? Forever is produced by Warner Bros. Television, which is one of the factors that’s potentially doomed it on ABC, seeing as how the network doesn’t get the monetary benefit from syndication/streaming and network president Paul Lee has stressed ABC’s desire for more in-house productions; it’s also one of the major selling points for a move to TNT, given that Warner TV and TNT are both under the umbrella of Time Warner. A successful run by Forever bolsters TNT’s scripted slate and the bottom lines of Warner Bros. and their parent company, meaning that everyone involved has incentive to keep this show on the air. Typically, the biggest reason that a show doesn’t change networks is finances, as budgets have to be worked out and licensing fees have to be renegotiated. In this instance, though, Warner and TNT being this closely linked could make the financial tug of war much easier for all those involved, both sides having less red tape to cut through and more motivation to keep a show with an active, vocal fan base, promising growth potential, and a possible syndication windfall, given that procedurals are seemingly immune to today’s Netflix culture, going. The fact that Forever will have 22 episodes at the end of the season puts it three 22-episode seasons away from syndication and while cable has shielded its eyes from the horrors of that kind of mass production, TNT has allowed some of its cornerstone dramas (Major Crimes, Rizzoli & Isles) to put up 18-19 episode seasons. Forever might not be the type of performer that gets that type order, but being placed in a healthier environment for the type of show it is, with the type of financial cushion that being produced essentially in-house provides, would help it ride its way to a comfortable life in syndication.

The only thing that would stop a transition to TNT for Forever is the fact that TNT is undergoing a rebranding after hiring former FOX president Kevin Reilly to replace former TNT president Michael Wright. Typically, when a network makes a change at the top, the replacement will want to make their mark on the schedule and infuse the network with “their” shows, so picking up something from another network isn’t high on their list of things to do. Even with TNT sister network TBS giving former ABC comedy Cougar Town three additional seasons, no network wants to be known as a dumping ground for cast-off shows and the reticence from someone new at acquiring another property, even if it makes sense vis-a-vis corporate synergy, is understandable. In this case especially, since Reilly is trying to bring younger male viewers to the decidedly female-skewing TNT via shows like The Last Ship and Legends. However, Forever isn’t your standard light-hearted procedural, as it has the type of genre elements (immortality) that makes it a rare project that acts as a bridge between “old” TNT and “new” TNT. This is a show that can feasibly stand alongside the likes of Rizzoli & Isles and Falling Skies without sticking out too much either way, a project also not too far removed from upcoming summer drama Proof, which centers on a woman investigating “cases of reincarnation, near-death experiences, hauntings and other phenomena, all of it in the search for evidence that death is not the end.” In order for a network to successfully reinvent itself, there has to be a middle ground between what was and what will be, the transitional shows that help make the change from one extreme to another not as dramatic. Without a show like Forever, TNT risks making too many changes too quickly and alienating its core audience without giving itself the time to lure new viewers.

With its self-aware sense of humor, distinct soundtrack, and surprising amount of pathos, Forever is the most pleasant surprise of the 2014-2015 television season. It’s a procedural with some impressive depth, exploring ideas of mortality, regret, and loss in a format that normally doesn’t allow for such; it’s a sensitive, soulful look at what it means to be alive from the vantage point of someone who only wants his time on this Earth to come to an end. This is the type of television that should be given a chance to thrive and should ABC opt to not give the show a second season this coming May, Warner Bros. should take the show to TNT, a network that could grant Ioan Gruffudd and company the second life they so deeply deserve.

Forever airs Tuesdays at 10:00 on ABC. You can check out photos from tonight’s new episode here.