'Samantha Who?' renewal unlikely

[Brian Damage]

It will indeed be "Samantha Who?" next season as the sophomore series will likely not return for a third year.

Sources said ABC made the decision after it couldn't reach a deal with producing studio ABC Studios that would've cut $500,000 per episode from the show's budget for next season.

The amnesia comedy starring Christina Applegate was looking to add a third camera to its shoots, keeping the single-camera look but trimming its production schedule.

In the end, the savings through that proved not to be enough for the network.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i381632271e5e8b9694d26e49998686bf

[robyrob]

pretty bad when ABC can't crunch the numbers to make a deal work with ABC.

[Pavan]

It's harder than you think. To make a show from single camera to a hybrid is pretty difficult. The budget would have been cut big time. Plus they had 7 left over episodes. Not sure how they would have transitioned it to the "new version." Everyone has to be on board, and I doubt Christina was. It is too bad. They saved Scrubs this way. I'm sure ABC has plans for Christina in an exisiting or new project.

[Superstar]

Seems that it's definitely been cancelled :( From Ausiello:

Multiple sources confirm that ABC has pulled the plug on Samantha Who? after two seasons.

The news comes as a bit of a surprise considering ABC and the show's producers appeared to be close to compromising on a cost-cutting measure that would have shifted the comedy from its current single-camera format to the more traditional (and cheaper) multi-camera model.

On the bright side, at least there will be closure: Per an ABC insider, seven unaired episodes remain in the network's arsenal and the last one "feels like a series finale." Of course, there's no telling when or where those eps will be shown.

[markway895]

I liked this show. It was original and kind of clever. Oh well, it least we'll have it on dvd.

[robyrob]

how can it be cheaper to kill off an established show with an known audience and gamble on a half-dozen or so pilots (none of which may actually make it to air) to try and find one to replace it - than to just revamp it ?