Market Warriors Cancelled
by David Thiel
Market Warriors seemed to have the makings of a hit TV show. From the producers of the American version of Antiques Roadshow--for many years, PBS' most popular series--Warriors had a telegenic cast, a solid premise and a plum, post-Roadshow timeslot. Unfortunately, it never caught on the way that any of us hoped.
I've known about this since last week, but an article published Saturday in the public broadcasting industry newspaper Current made it official: Market Warriors will not see a second season. PBS has declined to produce any more episodes past the initial order of twenty.
I know that I'm disappointed. I was really looking forward to this one. Even after original narrator Fred Willard was shown the door when he reminded us all that X-rated theaters still exist, I felt confident that success was inevitable. Perhaps I was blinded by the blondeness of picker Miller Gaffney; I could've watched her rifle through antiques all day. Even so, I did begin to wonder why--at least in the episodes I watched--none of the expert pickers seemed to make much of a profit.
The final installment will air on WILL-TV Monday, April 22 at 8:00 pm CT.
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Comments:
Camille Born said on March 30, 2013:
Market Warriors just wasn’t the high grade of programming that I expect from PBS. The vast majority of PBS produced shows treat the audience as intelligent viewers. Market Warriors seemed to be dumbed-down, with frequent recaps of what went on (c’mon, we remember who bought what!) and other filler information that did not give us new information. We looked forward to it - as a sort of an antiques roadshow within the real world - but found that the ‘game’ aspect took away from educational aspect of learning about how to sopt a good find, what to avoid, etc. AR does that so well. The buyers never seemed to learn from their own mistakes. And the rules set them up to not make a profit - buying at a high wholesale to sell at a general auction at a place usually far removed from their experience. Some of the items they chose would have brought the dollars they expected IF they had been allowed to sell them at a place of their choice - a retail setting OR a “well-advertised auction of like materials” that AR always mentions. This series seemed as if it was trying to do a spin-off of American Pickers or Pawn Stars, and it seemed like it was trying too hard.
Lauren Gunnell said on April 01, 2013:
This series was better than both American Pickers and Pawn Stars…it will be sorely missed in our household.
cindy said on April 01, 2013:
Bats! I don’t watch much TV then when there is a show I really like they cancel it…!!!