Project Blue Book Looks for New Home After Cancellation

Article by Dan Selcke                              May 14, 2020                               (winteriscoming.net)

• History (Channel) has announced that it will not be renewing the popular UFO series, Project Blue Book after two highly successful seasons. Project Blue Book is a drama based upon the US government’s real-life investigation into UFOs in the 1950s and 60s. The ratings for the show averaged 2.5 million per week, which is very good for a cable television drama.

• Project Blue Book follows Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a real-life scientist who began work on the project as a UFO skeptic but then became a believer. Hynek is played by Game of Thrones veteran Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger). Hynek is paired with Captain Michael Quinn (Michael Malarkey), an amalgamation of several military figures from the story. The second season ended with Quinn missing, presumably at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

• It seems that History wants to replace its scripted series, such as Project Blue Book, Knightfall (about the medieval Crusades), and Vikings, with several mini-series about US Presidents. The popular Vikings series is moving to Netflix. The creators of Project Blue Book have already outlined new shows for seasons 3 and 4, and are shopping the show to other outlets as well. “We feel it’s unfinished,” said Executive Producer David O’Leary. “[E]verybody involved remains committed to trying to find our show a second home, and to continue,”

• Project Blue Book’s fan feel it’s unfinished as well. There’s a Change.org petition to save the show, and the creators are encouraging people to use the #SAVEBLUEBOOK hashtag on Twitter and Instagram to let networks know that there is interest. “[W]e want to thank the fans and say how grateful we are,” said showrunner Sean Jablonski. “Honestly, the greatest joy of the whole thing was just watching fans have these great [online] reactions to what we were hoping would be big, dramatic moments, whether it’s the Susie (Ksenia Solo) reveal, or somebody getting killed, or major plot turns that we were always trying to build.”

• Jablonski said that the show’s “characters are so great’; they’ve already laid out ten new episodes, and have the third season all planned out. So even if the show can’t find a new home on television, they will pursue a book, graphic novel, or even a mobile video platform such as Quibi. “[I]’d just be such a shame for our fans to not know where it’s going and where we can continue it to go because we’ve already done all that heavy lifting,” says O’Leary.

• “Obviously, we’re gonna bring Quinn back in early on,” Jablonski revealed. “He’s an integral part of the show.” The great thing about this show is that the subject matter and what it tackles is bigger than just writing a television script. We have the opportunity to tell great stories based on real-life stuff, and it’s still provocative today – 70 years later.

Last week, History announced that it wouldn’t be renewing any of its ongoing scripted series for new seasons, namely Knightfall — a medieval drama about the Crusades — and Project Blue Book, about the U.S. government’s real-life investigation into UFOs in the 1950s and 60s. The cancellation of Project Blue Book hit especially hard, because was actually doing pretty good in the ratings, averaging 1.3 million viewers a day after each new episode aired and 2.49 million a week after. Among cable dramas, that’s pretty respectable, and I imagine a show like Project Blue Book was less expensive to produce than something like Knightfall, at least.

So why the cancellation? Well, History seems to be pivoting towards more miniseries — it has at least three

miniseries about American presidents on the way — and is just doing away with all of its scripted shows; the popular Vikings ends this year, too, with the follow-up show going to Netflix. The good news is that the success of Project Blue Book gives the creators some leverage when shopping it around to other outlets. “We’re fortunate in that everybody involved remains committed to trying to find our show a second home, and to continue,” executive producer executive producer David O’Leary told SyFy Wire. “We feel it’s unfinished. And I’m sure our fans feel it’s unfinished.”

Indeed, the fans have been making their voices heard. There’s a Change.org petition to save the show up and running, and the creators are encouraging people to use the #SAVEBLUEBOOK hashtag on Twitter and Instagram to let networks know that there’s interest. “First and foremost, I think we want to thank the fans and say how grateful we are,” said showrunner Sean Jablonski. “Honestly, the greatest joy of the whole thing was just watching fans have these great [online] reactions to what we were hoping would be big, dramatic moments, whether it’s the Susie (Ksenia Solo) reveal, or somebody getting killed, or major plot turns that we were always trying to build.”

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