Cleopatra 2525 finally announced! (1 Viewer)

[Chris Bergmann]

Okay,

1. Xena ended after six seasons - it wasn't cancelled, it ended because both main stars wanted to move on.

2. The Eve storyline was only a very minor part of the final season.

3. The ratings for the final season were slightly lower, but the ratings had been declining for several seasons.

And Hudson Leick would have never worked as Cleopatra - the whole idea behind the character was that she was young, naive and weak. With Hudson in the lead they would have had an actress that was both the same age and a lot taller than the other two actresses. Maybe they wanted her as Sarge or Hel - but never as Cleopatra.

 

[FrancisP]

Okay

1. I would point out that Rene O'Connor did not rule out a 7th season. The lead producer and one of the staff writers
also said a seventh season was possible if the ratings held up. The cut-off point seemed to be in the low to mid 4s. Also the announcement was made a few weeks into the sixth season. That certainly indicates they might have been numbers watching.

2. Eve was to be a major player. As it was she appeared in the last 3 fifth season and first 4 sixth season episodes. There were plans to bring her back for February and May sweeps and there were discussions about a spin-off. The fact that the Eve shows averaged only a 3.25 killed that.
There were only 3 shows that got over a 4.0 in the fifth season. Kevin Sorbo's return as Hercules got a 4.0. Hudson
Leick's return as Callisto got two 4.1s. Since Eve was supposed to be Callisto reincarnated, Hudson Leick was the logical choice. That would have been the logical successor to Xena. But it didn't happen because RenPic was too cheap to admit a mistake and recast.

3. I agree that there was a ratings drop. I also think that
the writing went downhill after the third season and the ratings went with it. Too many bombs like King Con and Fishsticks that even the producers admitted were bad.

I still stand by my statement. If you want to do a show like this then I think you need to go outside of Herc/Xena.
None of the 3 leads were well cast. Any show's format can be tweaked to fit the cast. That's one of the reasons the show flopped. If you want to go within the the Herc/Xena cast, Hudson Leick and Melinda Clarke(Valesca) were the only
ones who could carry a action adventure show.

 

[Will_B]

Some of the extras on one of the Best Buy discs for Xena covered why the show had to end.

It pointed out that the end seasons of Xena were also the years when syndicated television programs were no longer able to find evening slots, due to the new networks (UPN and WB) expanding their own original programming to 7 days.

So first-run syndicated programs such as Xena were being relegated to afternoon showings, which meant no money. It was an impossible situation.

 

[Will_B]

I've been watching the box of Tru Calling and I see that Hudson was the "HELP ME!" victim during the opening credits. That had to be unpleasant, seeing yourself as a corpse every week!