Las Vegas fans still mounting baby bootie campaign to save the show

by Jennifer Squires Biller

If you’re looking for a pair of baby booties these days, good luck.

So far, fans of the recently canceled NBC show Las Vegas have sent more than 10,000 pairs of booties to the network to protest the cancellation. (It’s a nod to finish the cliffhanger storyline in the final episode that involved one of the show’s main characters going into labor.)

The fan campaign seems to be having some effect. According to a story yesterday at TV Guide online, NBC and Vegas producers have been in discussions to try and give fans an ending they deserve, after five years of loyal viewing. The show’s final episode didn’t tie up loose storylines and ended with a “to be continued” tag, much to the fans’ outrage. (And mine!)

I applaud the efforts of those people who feel so passionate about a television show that they’ll donate cash and take the time to let a network know their displeasure at its decision to end an ongoing-story arc so abruptly. I’ve seen many fan campaigns come and go, from Veronica Mars to Jericho, and sometimes they end by satisfying fans and sometimes they don’t. I hope this time NBC will offer some kind of rewarding conclusion.

I can tell you from the hordes of e-mails and comments I’ve received here at Tube Talk since Las Vegas was canned, fans are angry. And even worse than that, they’re declaring their hesitancy to ever commit to NBC scripted shows again. And who can blame them? No one wants to spend hours and years of their lives investing in shows and characters that can be yanked off the air mid-story with no resolution.

This possible trend of viewers declaring never to watch NBC’s scripted shows again worries me, since I fear that if new scripted shows get low ratings, the network will continue to turn more and more toward ridiculous reality shows that fail to entertain.

So, it seems to me, this is an easy fix. (Of course, no one is asking my opinion or help to broker a deal, but I’m in if they want me!) Plain and simple, NBC needs to give fans a two-hour episode to wrap up the series. That way, fans are at least content. (I won’t say happy, considering they’re going to miss the show next year.)

If the fans get closure with a two-hour episode, that goes a long way in improving public relations and getting TV fans to continue committing to new scripted NBC shows. That’s a win-win, I’d say, and a move I don’t think NBC can risk not doing, for the sake of its future shows.

For more on the fan campaign, click here.