Why Did Sci-Fi Channel Cancel Sliders?
Near the end of July 1999, the announcement came at the end of a TV Guide chat with Robert Floyd (Mallory) and Tembi Locke (Diana Davis) (chat transcript courtesy of Earth62.Net). Sliders was cancelled and would not be back for a season six. But the fact is that Sci-Fi wanted to keep Sliders after they saw the ratings for season five (which stayed 0.1 behind the leader Farscape through August 1999 – a firm second place in original programming on Sci-Fi). The problem? They had already planned and budgeted their money before season five aired thinking that Sliders would likely perform poorly without Jerry O’Connell (Quinn Mallory). To Sci-Fi’s surprise, Sliders still performed. In fact, First Wave was the one to fail (Sci-Fi committed to a 3 year deal up front thinking it would be a sure hit, but it barely made the Top Ten each week with ratings in the 0.8 range. Previously, Sci-Fi’s original program Welcome to Paradox performed exactly the same as First Wave has in barely making the lis
