What TV show would you save?

Chuck is a show that I'm not really interested in, but it does have a dedicated audience who care about it and have had a direct influence in keeping the show on air.

To be honest, I don't find myself drawn to the story of Chuck Bartowski, an electronics store worker who gets embroiled in the CIA after having The Intersect (the entire database of government intelligence) downloaded directly into his brain, making him a security threat in the US and a target to those who want the information for themselves.

Last night's episode (TV2, 8.30pm) reminded me why I hadn't completely bought into it yet: I thought Chuck's remembering how to dance in order to get across a dance-floor was a bit silly, while the story featuring Ellie and Devon seemed like a contrived excuse to get them more involved - though the cliffhanger does seem to imply that Devon will play a bigger part of the show as we move ahead.

I might be the only one who feels this way though, since it was the third most mentioned show in the comments on Monday's post (after Fringe and True Blood). If all you had read was the comments on that post, you might be convinced that Chuck is one of the most popular TV shows around.

The popularity of the show among Stuff commenters is misleading, though: Chuck barely managed to get renewed for its third series (now airing in New Zealand) after a drop in viewership from Series 1 to Series 2 saw NBC place the show "on the bubble". Basically, Chuck sat in TV show purgatory awaiting a decision on whether it would be renewed or cancelled.

However, a campaign to save the show, organised by fan site ChuckTV.net and later picked up by television critics, got the show renewed for its third series. In short, Chuck was saved by its dedicated audience.

It's not the first show to have its life extended by an organised campaign aimed at networks: recent shows like hit comedy Arrested Development and drama Jericho managed to return for short final seasons after audience response to their cancellations in 2005 and 2007 respectively. In fact, Metacritic lists shows that were saved by fans, including Roswell, Felicity, and even Star Trek back in 1968!

Other shows aren't so lucky. Cancelled earlier this year after just one series, FlashForward had what I thought was a decent premise and a great cast, and showed more than enough promise to warrant a second series. Sadly, a campaign to get the show brought back amounted to nothing. The hilarious courtroom antics of James Spader and Denny Crane on Boston Legal suffered a similar fate back in 2008. I'd like both of these shows back, if I could.

Of course, if you want to save a show, you can start by using social networking sites - after last week's Fringe post, I thought we could get the ball rolling with a Save Fringe page on Facebook - join up and share it with your friends! Who knows, we might even get the show back!

So my question today is simple: What cancelled show would you like to see brought back for an encore? And are you watching Chuck? What do you think of the series so far?

** No Spoilers! **

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