The good news? Victorious has 15 new episodes that have (apparently) been filmed recently. The bad news? Nickelodeon has given the axe to its best show. But not only its best current show, possibly its best sitcom ever, with iCarly being the only even remotely plausible competition.
This news came as an unprecedented surprise to all of us. With iCarly already being sent to the chopping block, could Nick truly be so brash as to kill off it's only other dependable sitcom at the same time? They're really going to throw the reigns to their mid-level B shows and brand new, yet-to-be-filmed pilots, and just cross their fingers that they'll flourish? When the network is already in such deep financial woes?
Frankly, I'm devastated. Nick hasn't hurt me like this in.... well, probably never. When iCarly was cancelled, it was very sad, it was the end of an era, but it wasn't a massive loss. iCarly had already defied all comprehensible conventions, smashing Dan's previous sitcom record. It was time for the show to end, all of us in the iCarly fandom were expecting it to end two seasons earlier. But... Victorious? Victorious is young. Victorious has so much ahead of it, so much left to explore, so many untapped ideas. Or.... it did. But it's being cut down in its prime, long before we even have the luxury of watching it decline. Dan Schneider's best work isn't even being given the dignity of a fourth season. It's not just being cancelled, it's being cancelled earlier than previous Schneider shows that weren't 1/10th as good, like Drake & Josh and Zoey 101.
With both Victorious and iCarly finished filming forever.... Nickelodeon's golden age seems to be at a decisive end, save for The Legend of Korra. Can Nick resurrect itself from the brink of destruction? Only time will tell. But whatever Nick hopes to accomplish, they will have to fight their way uphill through the incompetent business decisions that have plagued the network for two years.
An event like this demands a more detailed analysis than this blog entry provides. What will become of the Victorious stars? What will this mean for the network's prospects in the short term? I haven't even mentioned the spin-off. But I'm short on time, on edge, and above all, at a loss for words. I was planning on writing a post about Disney Channel this evening, but then this news came up and torpedoed my intentions. What a sucky way to start a weekend.
