My name is Kevin Rodriguez. I am a huge fan of The WB channel, as well as the much loved family show “Everwood.” I have watched this show for four years, and now I hear that you have cancelled it in favor of another season of “7th Heaven.” Now, I don’t want to sound rude, but your reasoning for cancelling “Everwood” and renewing “7th Heaven” seem ill-logical, and that’s putting it kindly. “7th Heaven” is one of TV’s greatest shows ever created. That said, it also hasn’t been that good these past couple of years. The storylines haven’t been all that great, the kids are pretty much all grown up, and the show seemed to be dragging it’s feet more then anything. In all honesty, I was kind of glad to see it go. I guess The WB felt that way too at one point, as when they canceled it they said it was because the show lost them $15 million dollars this year. $15 MILLION dollars! That’s certainly not pocket change.

The writing was on the wall: People were tired of “7th Heaven” and wanted to move on. Recently, “Everwood” has also been suffering in the ratings department, but not for the same reasons. While “7th Heaven” became a casualty of a declining storyline, “Everwood” was the victim of poor decisions from the network. It changed nights two times this year. It faced stiff competition from shows like “24" and “Will & Grace,” two shows “Everwood” had very little chance of doing well against. Then, just to insult the show more, it was taken off the air for three months before returning with almost no publicity. On top of this, there has not been a DVD release since Season One was released on DVD a few years ago, and DVD releases always help promote the shows on TV. Quite frankly, I’m surprised the show received the kind of ratings it did considering how badly the network treated it. This year The WB and UPN are merging into a network called The CW. I’d like to congratulate you guys on the merger. I was at first excited to hear this news, but I must express dismay at some of the things that have come up from the pre-release information, which suggest that you guys haven’t learned your lesson when it comes to programming quality shows.

“Everwood” is not on the schedule, and your reasons for not including it are, shall we say, a little weak. The first excuse is that the Series Finale of “7th Heaven” received some record breaking 7 million viewers, and that you can’t ignore numbers like that. Actually Dawn, you can. See, remember this little show called “M*A*S*H?” “M*A*S*H” is a classic TV show. During the last three seasons though, the ratings were slipping, and interest in the show was dwindling. The network decided it was time to end the show. On the night the Series Finale of “M*A*S*H” aired, it was the most watched TV episode of any show, of all time. But did CBS (I believe) renew the show because of record ratings? Of course not. They knew what was going on. Every person who was a fan of “M*A*S*H,” even the people who hadn’t watched the show in years, tuned in to watch the final episode. It’s not that there was renewed interest in the show, it’s just that people wanted to see how it ended. The same thing with “7th Heaven,” and if you honestly think you’re going to get the kind of numbers the Series Finale received once the new season begins, then I think you are in for a real wake up call come this October.

Of course, I’d have to be lying if this was the only disappointing excuse for your canceling of the show, but there is one more problem with your excuse. You see, with the new schedule there is a problem with Sunday’s. You’ve got nothing but two hours of reruns for “America’s Top Model” or something like that. Nothing but reruns? Well gee, sounds to me like “Everwood” could go there. It might not be the most ideal time slot, but putting it there is still better then reruns of shows that people don’t really watch. At the end of the day, you have the choice on where you want to spend your money, but I have to say I can’t see myself watching your network now.

And it’s not JUST because of “Everwood.” It’s the reviving of “7th Heaven” that no one really wanted to see. It’s the Sunday nights that are nothing but reruns. It’s the canceling comedy shows like “Reba” and “Blue Collar Comedy TV” that continue to do well with viewers. And it’s the way that most of these decisions are the same kind of bad decisions that put WB in the red in the first place are now being passed onto The CW. I’m hoping you guys can prove me wrong. On a final note, did you know that more people watched “Everwood” over the Series Finale of fan favorite “Alias?” I think this is a good sign that you might want to change your mind about cancelling “Everwood.” Please don’t cancel “Everwood.”

Sincerely,

Kevin T. Rodriguez