Dark Matter Creator Joseph Mallozzi Explains SYFY Purposely Destroyed The Show
John F. Trent
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Dark Matter creator Joseph Mallozzi and long-time Stargate producer took SYFY to task when he explained they purposely destroyed the popular science fiction show.
Mallozzi recently did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit where he explained how the show was cancelled and he specifically called out SYFY.
He begins by explaining he had five full seasons planned out. Dark Matter was cancelled after the third season.
“It irritates me too. Especially because I had a five season plan going in complete with character and story arcs (which is why we were always able to set-up and pay off so much as the show went along). But, since you asked, this is what went down…
When we were first pitching the show, the pilot script went to Syfy’s Acquisition division in New York. They picked up the show. But as it turns out, the script had also been sent to Syfy’s Originals division in L.A. – who hated it and passed. And when they found out that the Acquisitions department in NY had picked up a project they had passed on, I heard they were decidedly Unhappy.
Then the show premiered and outperformed most of their originals. Which, from what I heard, really didn’t sit well with Syfy L.A.
Fast-forward three years later and our point person in New York left to go to Netflix. As a result, we didn’t have a champion in our corner anymore. Even though we were the network’s third-most watched show, I heard that not one executive stepped up for us. And, well, Syfy L.A. were never really fans – so we were cancelled. Without so much as a press release or a thank you. We went back at them and asked for the opportunity to offer fans a conclusion, even simply in the form of a two hour movie. They never even answered the email.”
In an interview with us last year, Mallozzi noted there weren’t any plans to have the show get picked up by another network.
“At present, no. The best we can hope for at this point is that the show builds a following through word of mouth and that somehow convinces one of the major player to give us a miniseries.”
He did hint that the show might be continued via comics akin to Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
“I love the comic book world and have been an avid reader since I was a kid. There is a possibility that Dark Mattercontinues in this format, but it’s a possibility that has yet to be pursued.”
What’s really interesting about Mallozzi’s explanation is that he notes the show was successful, but that didn’t matter because the people at SyFy L.A. had a grudge and were possibly even jealous of Mallozzi’s success with Dark Matter.
This isn’t uncommon. Tim Allen’s popular Last Man Standing was cancelled by ABC despite the show being the network’s second highest viewed comedy and the third most viewed scripted show with an average viewership of 8.1 million people during its sixth season.
Comic book television fans are no stranger to this behavior. NBC axed [easyazon_link identifier=”B01LTHLG4Q” locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Constantine[/easyazon_link] back in 2014 despite bringing in an average of 4.5 million on Friday at 10 p.m. Variety described it as a “respectable number for a Friday series.”
What do you make of Mallozzi’s comments regarding SyFy?
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