FAN REACTION TO ABC'S CANCELLATION OF "ONCE AND AGAIN"

March 29, 2002

Needless to say, the fans of "Once and Again" are very disappointed with the cancellation of the series. They were under the impression that ABC was giving the show one last chance to succeed in the Monday night timeslot. After four weeks in its seventh timeslot in two and a half years, the show was gradually increasing it's overall viewership and actually won its timeslot in key demographic categories on Monday, March 25th. "The news of the cancellation before the final run was finished came as a surprise to all of us. We thought ABC was going to give `Once and Again' a fair chance to increase the ratings. Four weeks just isn't enough time to recover from the mistreatment of the series over the past few years." said Trish Deeves one of the campaign coordinators.

Over the past two months the fans threw down the gauntlet in a very heartfelt and public way. They've used their own money, and given of their time and effort for no other reason than their love of the series. They have also challenged ABC to at least match their efforts. Sadly, they didn't even come close. Promotion for the show was almost nonexistent. A perfect example is the lack of advertisements for "Once and Again" during the Academy Awards show. The winner for best picture was A Beautiful Mind, a movie about a schizophrenic man. The next episode of "Once and Again" was tackling the same subject the next night on ABC. It would have been a perfect opportunity to try to spark the interest of the millions of viewers who were tuning in that Sunday night, not a typical occurrence on ABC these days.

The fans also wanted to take this opportunity to voice their appreciation to the cast the crew of "Once and Again". They will honestly never know how much their work has touched the lives of their viewers. Judy Selasky spoke for all the fans when she said "I am saddened by the lack of support on ABC's part and the news of 'Once and Again's' cancellation. I just want to thank the cast and crew for three of the greatest years of television I have ever been privileged enough to watch."

"The fans are not giving up. They plan to continue their support of the show. If you are a fan of 'Once and Again' and would like to help, please write or email ABC immediately. We also wanted to let other networks know that we are very loyal fans who will follow the show if they chose to pick it up." says Lynda Shulman, another campaign coordinator. If fans would like to take part in the campaign they can go to the following websites for details:

https://www.angelfire.com/tv/onceagain/
http://www.oandafans.com/
http://www.saveoanda.com/