Drive Will Return

[AssMan]

FOX is bringing back the short-lived car-race drama "Drive," albeit for one night only.

The abruptly cancelled Tim Minear-produced series will return on Wednesday, July 4 for two consecutive hours, running from 8-10 p.m. ET. Those two hours will represent the end of the show's initial six-hour run, as well as the last two produced hours for "Drive" (i.e. don't expect an extensive DVD set featuring 13 episodes, because they don't exist).

FOX pulled "Drive" from its schedule on April 25, after only three airings and four programming hours. The series averaged only 5.6 million viewers overall and a 2.3 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. With the all-important May sweeps period approaching, FOX determined that repeats of "House" would likely attract a larger audience in the Monday 8 p.m. time period.

For the record, this past week's "House" repeat did, indeed, average a 2.7 demo rating and brought in 7.35 million viewers.

The 4th of July is typically one of the lowest rated nights of television of the year, somewhat mirroring FOX's decision to burn off the final episodes of "Arrested Development" opposite the opening of the Winter Olympics on NBC.

Additional "Drive" scripts have been posted on Minear's personal website.

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-foxdriveburnoff,0,4634872.story

At least we will get to see the rest of the show

 

[Primal Slayer]

THis is what I hate about Fox, they always get these great shows on their network then they just cancel them because they arent huge. Give Drive to TheCW or another network.

 

[Wolfwood]

WTF, July 4th? What a crappy day to put in on, I probably wont be in town.

 

[Warhammer]

Nathan Fillion....

I feel sorry for him.
Screwed twice...

 

[dsfjr1190]

Fox is a bunch of morons. They never stopped to think that people were more concerned with the Virginia Tech. shootings than their show. They should have given the show more time and see if ratings went up after the media let down on the coverage.

Also: July 4th? Do they want this series to fail? People, myself included, have better things to do on a holiday than watch tv all night.

 

[X-Ray]

What a nice way for Fox to spit in the show's face. Putting it up against fireworks .... bastards!!!

 

[JackBauer]

three words: why. even. bother.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

good,show sucked anyway.

 

[The Squirrel]

FOX already canceled it?

Way to live up to the status quo.

 

[Frico]

Again, ****in FOX

 

[Jason Blood]

I quit watching FOX for cancelling it.

I have almost no reason to regret it now.

 

[Matt]

Y'know what, I am going to be terribly blunt and say something most Drive fans won't want to hear.

I liked Drive, hell, I loved it. And I am always one of the first to call Fox on their bull****, but the fact is, they made the right call this time. Drive was a great show...but it just didn't find an audience. And its not Fox's fault this time. Fox gave it a *****in' time slot. 8 pm, Monday night, lead in for 24...taking Prison Break's spot. It was the perfect place for it to find its demographic audience. They just didn't bite. With those kinds of ratings and the expensive budget on this show, Fox had no choice. Re-runs of House are doing better for godsakes. What were they supposed to do? Produce more episodes of a show that is already helluva expensive to fail? If a serial does not pick up an audience right away, chances are it never will as they are so hard to get into late. The suits at Fox have an obligation to their shareholders and they made the right call.

 

[jdogg willie]

And its not Fox's fault this time. Fox gave it a *****in' time slot. 8 pm, Monday night.

Yeah, it is Fox's fault for giving Drive that time slot. At 8 pm Monday nights, it's Heroes on NBC. I'm sure alot of people tried to switch back and forth on these two shows during commercials, but I got tired of doing that, and I stuck with the show that I found to be more entertaining... Heroes.

 

[kytrigger]

Y'know what, I am going to be terribly blunt and say something most Drive fans won't want to hear.

I liked Drive, hell, I loved it. And I am always one of the first to call Fox on their bull****, but the fact is, they made the right call this time. Drive was a great show...but it just didn't find an audience. And its not Fox's fault this time. Fox gave it a *****in' time slot. 8 pm, Monday night, lead in for 24...taking Prison Break's spot. It was the perfect place for it to find its demographic audience. They just didn't bite. With those kinds of ratings and the expensive budget on this show, Fox had no choice. Re-runs of House are doing better for godsakes. What were they supposed to do? Produce more episodes of a show that is already helluva expensive to fail? If a serial does not pick up an audience right away, chances are it never will as they are so hard to get into late. The suits at Fox have an obligation to their shareholders and they made the right call.

I have to agree. Not only that, but most of the time FOX ****s up by not promoting the show at all, but I haveto admit, I saw a HELL of a lot of commercials for Drive, I think even a few months in advance. To me, it seems that FOX was backign this show in the beginning and backign it hard. They wanted this show to become their nexr Prison Break, but it didn't catch on and they had to bail. And since it's a narrative show it is extremely difficult for people to just jump in and get it like a sitcom.

Some might call it a spit in the face to air the other episodes on teh 4th, but I see it as FOX saying "okay, for the few fans out there, we air the other episodes" but of course they aren't going to put it in a major slot, that would just be bad business.

 

[AssMan]

Yeah, it is Fox's fault for giving Drive that time slot. At 8 pm Monday nights, it's Heroes on NBC. I'm sure alot of people tried to switch back and forth on these two shows during commercials, but I got tired of doing that, and I stuck with the show that I found to be more entertaining... Heroes.

Heroes is on at 9. Drive was on before Heroes

 

[GoldGoblin]

I quit watching FOX for cancelling it.

I have almost no reason to regret it now.

^
Same here,maybe that's why they have low ratings on new shows,because they keep cancelling them and people are tired of getting into a new show then out of nowhere it gets cancelled.

 

[jdogg willie]

Heroes is on at 9. Drive was on before Heroes

No, Monday nights it went like this:

Deal or No Deal- 7pm to 8pm
Heroes- 8pm to 9pm
The Real Wedding Crashers (cancelled, I think, it wasn't on this Monday)- 9pm to 10pm

 

[Golgo-13]

Well i knew it. I called it in the other Drive thread and vola!, they cancelled yet another show. They also cancelled 'Vanished' which i loved...it's starting to make me not wanna watch ANY Fox show because i don't know how long they'll last.

 

[wiegeabo]

three words: why. even. bother.

FOX probably had a contractual agreement to air six episodes. So they just picked a spot to dump the last 2 episodes that won't really effect their ratings.

It's a shame because the show really started picking up with episode 3.