Why Bones Was Canceled And Why We Should Blame Fox
You're no doubt familiar with the proverb, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Well, that also extends to the way TV shows live and die.
For years now, streamers like Netflix have abruptly released shows with little to no promotion and then canceled them just as swiftly when they (miraculously!) fail to attract an audience. Or, if not that, they cut down a series still very much in the prime of its life for reasons that only their all-mighty algorithms can fathom. Sometimes they come back from the dead (like "Warrior Nun") or they find a new home (as "Star Trek: Prodigy" did), but otherwise, these shows tend to stay deader than a doornail.
These companies' goal, you see, is not to create sustainable hits; it's to inflate their value in the eyes of their shareholders. This problem isn't unique to streaming, either. Back in the aughts, Fox developed a reputation for intentionally dooming shows (be it by airing their episodes out of order, banishing them to time slots that tend to draw low ratings, or both), then sending them to the chopping block as soon as they inevitably dropped in ratings. Most of the time, these shows would end up vanishing into the void, much like the various titles streamers have been purging from their platforms of late. In rare cases, however, they would go on to become cult hits thanks to physical media, as "Firefly" and "Wonderfalls" did.
This brings us to "Bones." Hart Hanson's procedural dramedy was the rare case in the 2000s of a series being set up to fail by Fox, only to survive and even thrive for a shockingly long time (12 seasons total!). In the end, though, not even "Bones" could evade the bloodied blade of Fox's axe forever.
'It wasn't our decision'
In addition to airing a massive 246 episodes from 2005 to 2017, "Bones" would also birth a spin-off, "The Finder," that was (you guessed it) canceled by Fox after airing a single season in 2012. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times shortly before "The Finder" was axed, Hanson recalled how fortunate he felt that "Bones" had even survived after being moved around "a ton" during its first season:
"We never had four episodes in a row without being moved or pre-empted — and yet six million people followed us wherever. I think it was in season 3, the network realized it wasn't going to die and thought, 'Well, we might as well be nice to it.' And here we are going into season 8."
Five years later, when "Bones" was finally canceled, Hanson confirmed it was at Fox's behest ... although, by that point, the show's ratings had dropped low enough to (mostly) justify the network's decision. As Hanson explained during the 2017 Television Critics Association press tour (via Variety):
"It wasn't our decision. We were told it was our last year. It wasn't that we called that network and said, 'We'd like to finish now.' I'm not sure anyone is terribly upset or terribly shocked that it's our last year."
At least Fox extended Hanson and his team the courtesy of telling them season 12 would be their last, which allowed them to craft a satisfying conclusion for the series (while also giving them a heads-up to start planning for the future). If Fox had originally gotten its way, "Bones" wouldn't have made it out of the 2000s at all. Something to think about, should you ever find yourself yearning for "the good old days" before streaming flipped the television industry on its head.