A little more than a year ago, Sam & Cat premiered to an audience of 4.2 million people. Within a few months, the show was given a 40-episode first season order. Most observers expected it would wind up being Nickelodeon’s anchor show for at least a half decade, but sadly, thanks to a litany of behind the scenes problems, it’s not even going to see a second season.
The show’s demise has been rumored for months thanks to a feud between Jennette McCurdy and Nickelodeon. Maybe it was over her salary in relation to co-star Ariana Grande (whose brother is currently on Big Brother). Maybe it was because of some racy pictures of her that got leaked. We really don’t know, but the matter got so out of control, she skipped the Kids Choice Awards and then went public with her animosity, yelling about a supposed lack of “fairness”. Regardless, it’s now officially over, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
The opportunity to be on a show that’s a genuine hit with fans doesn’t come around very often. For every George Clooney that leaves E.R., there are dozens of stars who are never able to produce anything that’s as popular as what they left. The truth is Hollywood is an ugly business, and there’s not a whole lot of “fairness” in it. Sometimes your co-stars are more popular. Sometimes the network is a little cheap. Hard feelings are easy to come by, but more often than not, it’s better to actually work through them than push this hard and bank on another opportunity down the road.
An overwhelming majority of the time, networks will bend over backwards to make sure a hit TV program continues churning out new episodes. In the case of Grey’s Anatomy, that meant firing Isaiah Washington after his alleged conflict with TR Knight. In the case of Jersey Shore, that meant giving the cast members more than $100,000 each for every episode. When it came to Sam & Cat, however, the behind the scenes drama was apparently just too much and/ or the money demands just too unreasonable to be met.
There is still another episode of Sam & Cat that hasn’t aired yet. The network isn’t hiding it either. They’re being open about the situation in attempt to drive viewership, almost like a going out of business sale. You can see what I mean below…
Children’s programs don’t need to be on a lot of years to develop a cult following that will last over the long haul, but I’m not sure a single season will be enough to make an entire generation fondly remember Sam & Cat fifteen years from now. More than likely, people will vaguely remember it and that will be that.
