The reason that Brooklyn Nine-Nine was canceled is pretty straightforward, the ratings had gone down the tube. As Nina Starner of Looper has laid it out, the plucky police sitcom never has had the greatest of ratings and when it comes to many networks the ratings tend to justify keeping or dumping a show given that it’s hard to make money when a show is tanking since it means that no one is interesting. However when the show was cancelled the outcry of the public was so great that bringing it back became a priority, almost as much as a parent trying to get their child to stop crying after taking away a toy the kid never plays with but somehow can’t do without. That might sound like an unfair approximation of the show’s popularity among the people given their outcry when it was canceled, but the truth is hard to deny when it comes to ratings. When all was said and done though the show was brought back and it was given new life as it continued moving forward into another season. There are a lot of reasons why people love this show and yet there’s still a bit of confusion as to why that love didn’t translate into the type of ratings that might have kept it from being taken off in the first place.
In terms of being inclusive it’s been hailed as a great show since it does have a police chief that’s black and is also gay, and it also has another detective that’s black, and of course Rosa did come out as bisexual so there’s even more to love about the show since the characters aren’t defined by their sexuality or skin color. The show has also focused on a number of issues that have been reverberating throughout society throughout the last decade and has taken on each one with its customary aplomb. But still the ratings are hard to fully understand since one would think that a show that’s talked about so often and has drawn the attention of so many would be at the top of the heap or at least close to it. After watching several episodes it’s fairly obvious just why people like it and why the public response to its cancellation was so easy to predict. It’s almost like watching an updated version of Police Academy with the laughs dialed down a bit and refined in a way that fits the current era.
The good news for fans of course was that the show was brought back, and there’s not much bad news really since it’s proof that people crying loud enough in this era can usually get what they want, especially if a network figures that they can still make money with an idea that can draw people together in this manner. The show is funny without any doubts but the whole idea that something can be brought back by knowing the right people and because the fans are willing to sob in outrage that one of their favorite shows was taken off is worthy of an exasperated head shake since it goes to show that the squeaky wheel will usually get the grease so long as the people behind the operation can justify it in some way. In other words, whine loud enough about a show that you might watch just enough to call yourself a fan and it will be brought back no matter if taking it off was the right thing to do at the time. There are likely people that might have thought it was taken off for another reason apart from the ratings, perhaps it’s subject matter wasn’t fitting or the characters weren’t working with the audience, but the ratings are the biggest issue with any show unless the show in question decides to push the boundaries past good sense when attempting to entertain the people. Thankfully Brooklyn Nine-Nine doesn’t go that far and manages to keep things funny and edgy but not so far beyond the limits of control that it would no longer be a worthwhile show to keep around.
In fact not a lot of shows have done such a thing recently since the PC era is keeping things in check quite a bit and has made sure that the kind of material that we enjoyed in the 90s and even in the 2000s isn’t being fully replicated at this time. It might actually be a good thing that it’s not since to match or possibly top said material said shows would have to be transferred over to other networks that don’t have as many limitations. Of course if such a thing were to happen the show wouldn’t be the same and people would likely have an issue yet again.
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