"and like that... *poof* ... it's gone..."
American High was one of the new wave of reality-based TV shows, more like the Real World than, say, Survivor, but with non-actors in real life situations. The situation in this case was a year of high school in America. They followed fourteen high school kids around for an entire school year, and then edited it into a television series. In a world of canned teen dramas like Dawson's Creek and Freaks And Geeks, TV critics and the few fans of the show felt it refreshing to see regular high school kids talking and acting like regular high school kids. The show aired twice on Fox, and now they've decided to cancel it, because the ratings suck.
This is patently foolish. The ratings suck because FOX put it up first against Survivor and then against Monday Night Raw. Oh yeah, and they failed to advertise it at all. I would really have no problem with the show's cancellation - I enjoyed the show, but didn't find it outstanding - if FOX had a better show for that slot. But the fact is...
FOX has nothing but crap to fill the slot with
Face it... other than The Simpsons, what on FOX is worth tuning into every week? Sure there are your King of the Hill fans, and your Malcolm In The Middle fans, and a lot of people will still watch The X-Files after David Duchovny leaves, but this is a network that doesn't even have a full night's worth of quality programming, let alone seven nights, and they're cancelling shows left and right. Strange Luck. Gone. Harsh Realm. Gone. Brimstone. Gone. Millenium. Gone. This is a network that nearly cancelled Party Of Five after the first season, and then relied on it to bring ratings in when every other show started to flail.
FOX continues to find ways to fumble and fuck up television - they cancel shows after two episodes, they broadcast cheap knockoffs of Regis Philbin game shows, and they marry two total strangers on live TV, only to find out that their prized so-called millionaire bachelor was anything but. And they don't just fuck up their own network. They bought UPN, which will effectively dissolve that television option (and probably before the Matrix-inspired "Freedom" will air).
Does FOX really think that back-to-back repeats of Futurama will do any better in that time slot? Or perhaps they'll have another exciting episode of "When Animals Attack Those Involved In The World's Scariest Police Chases". How long can they expect people to keep turning in to Cops? Does Rupert Murdoch have any knowledge of the colossal fuck-up in progress at his television network?