UPN Reportedly Axes 'Roswell'

UPN has cancelled Roswell, only a year after saving the series from cancellation by the WB

Crashdown.com reports that the season order of 20 episodes has now been cut by UPN to 18. The network apparently has no plans to order a new season of the show.

Roswell's cast and crew was informed of the decision to stop work on the series today. Production on the remaining order of episodes is expected to finish in mid-March.

This move comes just a week after executive producer Jason Katims told journalists that the series was guaranteed for 20 episodes on the Enterprise network (story). Last week also saw the cancellation of another UPN series, Enterprise lead-out show Special Unit 2.

But as early as December, storm clouds were gathering over the show's future. Then UPN chief executive Dean Valentine said that the network was exploring various options for the show. Fuelled by disappointing ratings in the face of the WB's Smallville, the series has not prospered on its new network. Plans were put in place last year to take the show off the air and to experiment with new shows As If and Random Years in the key timeslot following Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now it seems that the new administration at UPN has lost patience with the show.

Roswell had a number of Trek veterans on its staff - Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker) was an executive producer and appeared on the show several times; including in a recent crossover storyline with Enterprise. DS9 writer Ronald D. Moore served as co-executive producer and former Voyager scribe Lisa Klink filled the role of co-producer during its second season.

Roswell moved to UPN after fans besiged network executives with 12,000 bottles of tabasco sauce in an effort to convince it to save the show from cancellation. Whether another network will take a chance on the series remains to be seen.

More can be found in the original report at Crashdown.

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