Gilmore Girls Cancellation Speculations
By Arieanna
There are a lot of speculations about how Gilmore Girls ultimately came to be cancelled.
It was not a surprise to Alexis Bledel or Lauren Graham, both of whom felt it was time to move on. Each felt the production schedule to be too demanding, and the plot satisfactorily tied up at the end of the season.
However, if you listen to Lauren Graham’s Ellen interview, it did sound like the ultimate decision was not hers.
The network had negotiated for Gilmore Girls to return for a shortened Season 8 - just 13 episodes. Along with a hefty pay hike, things seemed all ready to go. But, in the end, they broke apart. Here are some speculations as to why:
The girls had agreed to a 13 week season with a very generous pay increase. All that was needed was the signatures. Then, after the contacts had been drawn up and approved by everyone’s legal team, the girls came back and told the network that they wanted to change the number of episodes down to 8. That was the deal breaker. It wasn’t worth it to the network. - SassyPaws at twop
In the end, perhaps time was simply against us. The negotiations were prolonged and I personally think everyone just gave up. And it does sound like Lauren Graham was sad about it:
Apparently the girls were under the impression that the advertisers had threatened the CW with withdrawing all network ad money if they did not deliver Gilmore’s coveted females teen audience. That led the girls to believe that they had the backing of the advertisers and could force the network do anything they wanted. They greatly miscalculated since apparently the advertisers are really pleased with the crop of new pilots and, though they like GG, they aren’t that concern with its demise.
Despite the public persona that has been presented by Lauren, according to my sources, she was totally shocked when the network ended negotiations and is not happy at all with the fallout that is rippling through Hollywood. - SassyPaws at twop
I really do understand how Lauren and Alexis could get tired. It was not just the number of episodes, but how long it took to film each one. Such extremely long days, back to back. I think the negotiations should have revolved around spreading that out, personally.
After reading this, I believe even more that the network can make this happen!