A massive hurricane is currently tearing up the ocean just off the coast of Mexico, and the surf here in Southern California is huge. Waves between fifteen and twenty feet have been common, and on Wednesday, Anne and I went down to the beach to see them for ourselves, and take a long walk along the sand.
School has just started, so there weren’t many people down there. Parking was easy, and after a quick walk across the hot sand, we got to the edge of the water. We stood there for a few minutes and watched enormous waves explode into foam, before the ocean seemed to completely flatten out into deceptively serene beauty between sets.
We walked about four miles down the sand, and another four miles back. We shared a meatball sub for lunch, and a little after 2pm, we got in the car to head home.
We were about a quarter mile from our house when my cell phone rang. I vaguely recognized the number, so I picked it.
“I have [Syfy Network Executive] for you,” a disinterested assistant said.
“Okay,” I said. The line fell silent, and I knew that my work with Syfy was over.
“How are you?” He asked me.
“I’m fine,” I said, honestly. “I just got back from a nice long walk with my wife, and it’s been a pretty great day.”
“Well, I’m about to make your day less great,” he said. Then, he told me that Syfy will not be ordering more episodes of The Wil Wheaton Project.
He assured me that it wasn’t the quality of the show. He told me again and again how much he loved it, how funny he thought it was, how much he liked me, how much he wanted to find other things to do together.
Ultimately, he told me, the executives in New York just didn’t think we had enough viewers to justify more episodes. I didn’t say anything about the total lack of promotion off the network, or point out that our ratings were on par with The Soup, or that ratings are always lower in summer than the fall. I didn’t bother saying any of that, because I know he knows that. I was reasonably confident that he made those arguments with New York when he was trying to get the show renewed. I presume he fought hard for us, but ultimately couldn’t sway executives in New York who never seemed — in my opinion — to really understand what kind of show we were doing, who I was and why I was hosting it, and how to engage with and promote to the audience who would like it.
I thanked him for the call, thanked him for the opportunity to do a show that Syfy had never tried before, and sincerely thanked him for all his creative support. He’s a good guy in an industry full of bad guys, and I genuinely enjoyed working with him. I know that he’s trying really hard to put the sci-fi back into Syfy, and if anyone can do it there (which is going to be incredibly difficult, I think), he’s the guy who can make it happen.
I hung up the phone, and told Anne that we weren’t being renewed.
“How do you feel about that?” She asked me.
“I’m really okay with it,” I said. “I’m super sad that I won’t get to work with my writers and producers, and I’m sad that we don’t get to keep writing jokes, but I did everything I could to help the show succeed. I promoted it the best way I could, I worked hard to write stuff that was funny, and I tried so, so, so hard to get the network executives in New York to understand how they could help the show succeed.
“I can only do so much, and we didn’t get a lot of promotional support. I did everything I could, and I’m proud of the work we put on the screen. On the one hand, it’s a shame that they stopped us right when the show was hitting its stride, but on the other hand, we went out with some great episodes.”
I’m disappointed that I won’t get to keep working with people I really like and respect. I’m sad that we won’t get to do more silly segments like How Will They Bite It? and Skeletor Reads Angry Tweets. I’ll miss the scarecrow most of all.
I’m grateful, though, to the people at Syfy who believed in us and gave us a chance to succeed. I’m grateful for the creative support we got, and I’m grateful that I got to spend my summer working with wonderful, talented, funny people. I grew a lot of levels in comedy writing over the last 18 weeks or so, and I owe it all to the amazing people I got to work with.
I had made a decision the day we wrapped the show, that I was going to be okay whether Syfy picked us up, or not. I can honestly say that I am really okay with where I am today. I’m looking forward to doing Tabletop and our upcoming RPG show. I’m looking forward to writing more stories, getting excited, and making more things.
Thank you to everyone who watched our show. Thank you for your kind words, and for being part of a pretty great summer.
Until next time: Play more games!
Oh, and let me just stop this before it starts: we nerds have a penchant for letter-writing campaigns and stuff to try and save shows we like. Please don’t do that here. It’s not going to happen, and we should instead put that energy into something else, like getting #butts to trend.
Always a class act, sir. Well done, and great rehearsal for what comes next….although I too will miss Skeletor’s tweet-reading.
Just wanted to say I thought the show was off to a good start, and even if it had a similar format to previous shows, the geek entertainment aspect made this show unique. I have read only a little about the situation, but has there been any discussion of the politics of a show like yours, sometimes egos get stepped on. A Syfy executive not liking he has to sell commercial time to a studio after you mocked one of their properties… or the other situation where it’s free advertising for another ? Anyways, it was fun while it lasted…hope you pop up somewhere else.
Sorry. And thanks for the laughs.
We will miss Skeletor reading tweets a lot.
Bring back Shia LaBeouf!
I am sorry the show was not renewed – I enjoyed watching every Tuesday. I am looking forward to TableTop and making my wishlist of games to buy like last season. Thank you for discouraging the letter writing campaign (puts pen and paper away…).
Really enjoyed the show, and REALLY bummed it didn’t get a second season 🙁
I’m really sorry. I’ve just been watching all the eps through again before finally deleting them off my DVR and enjoying them all even more this time.. Sigh.
Perhaps you can still use some of those great ideas for a new show on Geek and Sundry. I’ll show up to watch. Promise.
Thanks for the twelve fun episodes we did get to see!
Well, damn. I was enjoying the show a lot. Ah well. Yet another in an uncountable string of inexplicable Skiffy decisions.
I watched one episode on hulu and realized I couldn’t watch it anymore. It isn’t you, it’s me. I have a hard time keeping up with the show due to spoilers dealing with your content. Hope to watch more of it when I can get to watching movies and other shows. I really truly did like the first episode.
Loved your show. Syfy execs are #butts. You should do the bits on your blog or on G&S cause it was spot on and funny and nerdtastic.
Hi Wil. Sorry to hear about the show! Personally, I didn’t really get the show – I guess it wasn’t my thing.. But I really like you and want to have all you do become a success, so I am genuinely sorry to hear that the show isn’t continuing. But keep writing man! You are a fantastic writer! One of your pieces about you, as a kid, trying to choose a star wars toy is exceptional! I, myself, had almost forgotten how it’s like being that small kid in the toy store, but your writing has really helped me understand my own kids better, so thank you for that. And also, keep writing about depression and anxiety – I suffer myself, and it is helping me to know that, this is something other normal people are struggling with too! So yeah, thumbs up on being you, and have a nice day 🙂
I gotta say that this is really unfortunate. My family loves your show! Might I suggest getting picked up by Netflix? They are the future and the networks are the past.
My only real “criticism” is that the show SHOULD have followed your social media lead and done more things like reaching out to web-content generators, talking about gaming, sharing more personal observations, etc. Instead, it was just another genre magazine with jokes. I think they missed the point. The “Shoutouts” segment, for example, should have regularly highlighted podcasts, fan videos, blogs, games, etc. instead of just being another opportunity for additional celebrity jokes and cringe-worthy puns. 🙂 Maybe next time, or maybe this kind of thing simply NEEDS to be online! We’re still here for you, buddy!
Hit the nail dead center on the head.
Wil, I love that you’re at a place in life where you can have such a positive outlook about this.
I’m just going to throw this out there, perhaps using the Geek & Sundry label you could do another Indiegogo fund raiser, like you did for TableTop, to gather enough funds for a few episodes of something “similar” to your show on Syfy. You could call it something like… “The Wil Wheaton Project That Syfy Was Not Smart Enough To Hold On To” Yeah, maybe that’s too long of a title.
Umm, SyFy can’t be bothered with your good material. They have Sharktopi and Tornado’s of Sharks and other various shark-related material to work through before they get to Captain Wil Wheaton.
My husband and I never missed an episode. Despite the mainstream attention given to nerd subculture these days, us nerds are still a misunderstood group. In a way, that sucks because shows like this get cancelled.
However, if everyone totally “got” us, then we wouldn’t savor the experience of conventions and whatnot quite as much. We wouldn’t be as unique. We wouldn’t strive to be as creative in the ways that only nerds can be. We wouldn’t feel quite the same thrill when finding out that a new coworker is also a nerd.
It is our lot to be misunderstood, yet totally awesome.
PS. BWAAAAAANG.
I am sad. 🙁
Those dirty bastards!!! I’m really getting tired of SyFy…. They Cancel anything mildly decent, yet keep complete shit on the air…
ARRRRGGGG HASHTAG SHIALEBOEUF!
I agree, I really thought the show was hitting its stride. You seemed much more comfortable by mid-season, and the show seemed to have found a working formula. Kudos to SyFy for at least experimenting with the concept. Yours was the one show on TV that I actually set aside time to watch (Agents of Shield has been in hiatus, you understand).
At first, I thought the blog title meant your house was flooded from the recent storm surges, then realized it was a reference to Skeletor’s tweet reading. Skeletor should never be right! The indignity!!!!
Sad to hear the show is not getting picked up, but thank goodness the house is okay. 🙂
After you acted like a child on twitter the other day this seems like karmic retribution.
Karma back at you jerk.
I’m pissed off. I really enjoyed the show, and the last 5 ep’s were awesome, I laughed out loud many times.
However I did have the same nagging hunch about it not being picked up, because HEYYY all great shit just gets cancelled, and your reasons above.
That being said, and honoring your plea not to nerd out and petition for a renewal to the network (i.e. asshats):
How about getting Netflix to pick it up instead (as Dan Cormack a couple of comments up suggested?)
Streaming networks are the future & so much better to pick up good stuff like your project.
Here’s hoping you have the energy to try and fight for it (after a week’s rest or something) instead of just letting it go.
It’d be a shame to waste a sweet thanngggg like The Wil Wheaton Project.
My two cents, yeah I know you didn’t ask.
But hey…lick-a-lick-a-lick-a-lick-a (cherry).
Anyway, I’m gonna pout for a while
🙁
\m/(-_-)
Robbed. My girlfriend and I thought your show was hilarious, and she wants to send Skeletor a present for saving us from forcing ourselves to suffer through the last half season of True Blood.
that sucks big time
I only watched the first episode and felt it wasn’t for me. Fair enough we are all different. But I have to offer big chunks of respect for your acceptance of the decision. At least you had the opportunity to do the show and I see a hell of a lot of people loved it so even though it wasn’t my cup of tea I tip my hat in your general direction for a job well done. And I await more TableTop with great enthusiasm.
Commiserations, but you did it like a pro and you took it like a pro and I have no doubt that you’ll keep doing it – whatever it is – in the same manner.
PS: I, like many others, wait with GREAT anticipation for the next season of Tabletop. It has changed my life in a small but significant way.
—
Greetings from Krakow, Poland
I don’t have cable (expensive in Australia) but enjoyed watching it on YouTube. I also think you are one of the best additions to tbbt. Your humor and shows have helped me through some low times . You make a great contribution to this planet.
Did you try your best? Did you have fun? That’s all that matters.
Sad to hear it. I really enjoyed the show. Looking forward to a new season of Tabletop.
I’m sorry to hear this, Wil. I really enjoyed your show. I think one point that may have also affected the ratings so much is the fact that your target audience is nerds and geeks…and we LOVE streaming!! Not every website reports the viewer totals back to the networks, so I’m sure there is an enormous number of people who chose that route for viewing your show (like myself) and maybe we weren’t counted.
It’s truly unfortunate things went the way they did. I’ll miss your show, and I hope you find another new project to do I will enjoy as much. I never watched ST, but your role on TBBT made me a huge fan of your work and I’m really looking forward to another season.
Be well!!
-Scott
First, let me say I’m sad to hear that news, I really enjoyed the show. My wife, not so much with the Superman jokes, but you can’t please everyone. 😀
Second, am I the only one that read the post title to the Pina Colada song?
Third, does SyFy own those skits? I say take em to YouTube! Geek & Sundry, Nerdist Network, there’s a place out there somewhere for more non-game playing Wil Wheaton!
That’s a bummer, I really enjoyed your show.
Maybe make webisodes and post them online, or via YouTube?
Nooooooooooooo! That’s horrible news. If it wasn’t for your show and Face Off, I wouldn’t even watch that channel! All the crappy movies with crappy CGI effects are the worst… That channel hasn’t been any good since they started misspelling SyFy!!! Who came up with that?
Anyway, Wil, maybe now there will be a re-tooling of Star Trek TNG where Wesley Crusher is now Captain Crusher, in charge of his own starship that goes back in time and destroys SyFy headquarters in NYC all the while screaming “I got your SyFy RIGHT HERE!” (All done with miniatures and green screen, of course).
This…
This SO needs to be a Robot Chicken sketch.
Seth Green… we’re all looking at you!
I would watch the shit out of a Robot Chicken episode like that. 😀
Great show. Hope one of the other channels, REELZ or Spike, will pick it up.
Oh man! It’s really sad to hear that Skeletor won’t be scouring social media for more tweets and reading them aloud in his awesome voice! That’s just one of the awesome things that I am going to miss about this show. 🙁 Thanks for all the fish though Wheaton!
Sorry for you, but can’t really say that I’m surprised. SyFy isn’t known for being kind to shows, and I think that too many of your fans are cable cutters. Networks don’t care if you’re streaming or downloading shows, they want you to watch the ads.
I just wanted to resonate the global sentiment. You truly are a gentleman in a den of thieves.
So sad. It’s so frustrating when stupid decisions get made and you can’t do a thing about it. You did a great job, you were funny and warm and snarky and yourself and it was fun to watch.
You have had to pick yourself up and keep moving before, as this blog testifies, way back, years ago. You made sure not to have all your eggs in one basket, to not just be an actor, hat in hand, auditioning for work from judgey weirdos, but be a creative person living a maker life. You know how to turn the page and make something new happen. You are smart and capable. You will do it.
I’m sorry to hear this. I really enjoyed the show. I’ll especially miss “How Will They Bite It?” That was my favorite bit. That and your total disdain for “Finding Bigfoot” shows. Heh. Now I guess I’ll just look forward to Tabletop and wait to see what other new great things you decide to make in the future.
It seems to me that maybe Comedy Central would understand The Wil Wheaton Project and promote it properly. It seems to me like it would fit right in with @midnight and Tosh.0. In fact it seems so obvious that I’m guessing you’ve probably already thought of that.
So here’s hoping it’s not completely dead, but even if it is, I know you’ll just find something else awesome to do, and I know I’ll enjoy it along with all the rest of us. Either way, you keep doing what you do and we’ll keep the energy up, we promise.
I’m really sorry. It was a nice way to wrap up my day after working my evening shift at the library. It was really hitting its stride.
My heart will always belong to Drunk NDT.
Thank Cthulhu for Tabletop! Know that you have another fan rooting for you!
I am going to be honest here. I love everything you do Mr. Wheaton. I have watched every single Table Top episode and some of them multiple times. Of course I dig your older stuff, but I am really into the things that let you be you on screen. I enjoy @midnight, but it isn’t a show I never miss… unless I see you as a guest on it. I watched the first 5 episodes of your show on SyFy, but I wasn’t feeling it. It didn’t feel like you up there. I really wanted to support you by being one more viewer, but I knew the show wasn’t going to make it.
Do you know why Table Top has been such a huge success? It isn’t the board games… it is you. When I watch Table Top it brings me back to the 80s. It brings me back to when I was a young kid watching those early morning shows. The host of those shows always seemed to care about their audiences and they always seemed to be truly honest and decent people. When you are hosting Table Top that is how you come off. While watching the Wil Wheaton Project I felt like you were trying to sell me something. On Table Top you seem more natural and you seem like you are honestly excited about what you are talking about.
This may sound crazy, but I think you need to hook up with the Disney Channel or Nick. I think you have a HUGE untapped audience in kids under the age of 15. Your ability to make other people excited about what you are talking about (as long as you are honestly excited) is perfect for a show on those networks. When you are on Table Top you may talk about adult things, but you do it with the endearing quality of a child that has no other intentions other than spreading the word about something they love.
I honestly hope the best for you Mr. Wheaton.
I agree with this post!
Loved your show! Bummed it didn’t get renewed. Thanks for making summer tv fun to watch!
So sorry Wil! I watched your show online since I don’t have cable and really enjoyed it
Sorry, Wil! Best wishes.
Sad, I looked forward to your show every week Wil. The good news is that you will be free to do some kickass Tabletop episodes. Most importantly, you will be putting together a highly anticipated, long-running RPG campaign. Any time you need more money for something, let us know. We believe in you.
I don’t think they gave you the proper support to make it fantastic. I think you deserve better things, anyway ‘play more games’! We are missing you on Table Top;)
Just wanted to echo many others, sorry you didn’t get renewed but so many thanks for what we did get, always good fun and me and my friends all enjoyed watching it.
So there go the chances of ever seeing this on SyFy not-USA ? 🙁
I liked the bits you’ve posted out there on the web and G+.
Maybe the show simply needed more #butts ?
Was upset to hear that your show had been cancelled Wil. My partner and I downloaded it every week and really enjoyed watching each episode. It’s ironic how SYFY has reputation for churning out terrible movies left and right but they couldn’t find 30 minutes and a little cash for your show. I think in the end you they’ll be sorry and you’ll find another home for your program. Best of you luck to you and as always…Play More Games!!!
I would like to thank you and all the people who worked on the the show. it was funny, witty and my husband and I looked forward to watching it each week. Thank you for the experience, how will they bite it and you dream date with John Barrowman are forever etched in my mind
Dream Date with John Barrowman and How Will They Bite It? were my favorites, too. Thanks for the laughs, Wil!