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My good man, you are preaching to the choir here. I've complained about this on several boards I frequent; first time here. In fact I just posted a probably too long complaint on one, and I said something to the effect of I don't know why anyone would watch network television at all anymore. It's turned out to be a crapshoot as to whether the show you like will have enough ratings to stay on. Actually from what I've been reading lately it's not just a pure matter of ratings. It's got to be ratings in the right demographic and even how expensive it is to make the show.
For instance I was reading about one show, Vegas. Now, I don't watch that show but my sister-in-law does. Unluckily for her, it appears to be in danger of being cancelled, not because it has low ratings, cause it doesn't, but because they aren't in the prized 18-49 year old demographic. Funny enough, that's where she is, but no matter. They talk about moving it (another matter that I used to complain about more until I joined the rest of the modern world and got a DVR) but they say the production values are too high to merit a move to get a better rating. In other words it's being punished for looking too good. I guess like a movie instead of TV show, plus they've got a story about the past so they've got to pony up for period costumes, prop's, etc. Good grief.
My recent disappointments have been 666 Park Avenue and Don't Trust the B--, which I learned just got cancelled. That one was a comedy, and didn't really have a through-story line, but actually it kind of did, as many, even comedies, have these days, so I was bummed not to see more of the story. Besides, I just enjoyed the humor. But Park Avenue had a mystery to be solved, and even though some people that liked this show on one board I subscribe to claim it did answer some of the questions, it never resolved to my satisfaction, and now I'm mightily peeved. I realize that my tastes may run a little contrary to a lot of the viewing public, and I may prefer some of these shows that require a little more investment and if they turn out to be not as popular I run the risk of not being fulfilled if the story gets cut off. That might bring up another point. I've also read that the problem with some of these shows, like Vegas, didn't create enough "buzz"...you know, like Facebook, Twitter type buzz. Well, holy smokes! One man's buzz is another man's snore. I'm like you Denis, I'd probably celebrate if Honey Boo Boo slid off the face of the earth.
Lucky I like a lot of the stuff on basic cable networks, it seems they tend to keep them on a bit longer, and they seem to offer more quality (whatever the hell that means), although they seem to be going a bit toward the network trend of yanking them if they don't meet some stupid standard besides quality. And I guess I can count myself lucky that I also enjoy sports...you can't cancel a basketball game. And I guess I'm lucky I developed a tasted for some of the stuff I wouldn't be caught dead watching when I was in school, like History and Science Channel and the like. And I'm lucky I like the vast majority of the stuff on premium cable, which IMO is where most of the quality is, whatever, again, that means. And I'm lucky that I live in a time where there's 500 channels catering to almost every niche (hey, where's that Almost Middle Aged Bass Player Channel I been waiting for?) which gives us hope sometimes that something will pop up elsewhere. I enjoyed a show called Damages, Fox cancelled it, it went to DirecTv's Audience network and ran for two more seasons and ended very nicely. Score!
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...the dagger of Lust in my chest....
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But I didn't watch every week and I think this is one of the problems with these ratings systems. I would watch on the OnDemand and I don't think they take that into account. I would wait until the thing was about to go off before watching. Normally that's about 2 or 3 months after the show aired. Yeah, I'm slow. Anyway, my second and third show were my new favorites for this season: Ben & Kate and Emily Owens M.D. B & K was quite funny and had an interesting relationship that we don't often see as the basis for a comedy these days. That is the brother/sister dynamic. I enjoyed that since I have a sister who is close to me in age but a bit different than me. Rather like the characters of Ben and Kate. Plus, it was a funny show and I always enjoy seeing Lucy Punch. Her character was pretty funny. Still it was cancelled. As for Emily Owens, M.D., I had great hopes for this show. I was watching each episode and now I find out it's being cancelled. I had heard rumors a couple of months ago but then it started to reappear after the new year so I figured it was here to stay.I felt that maybe it was on the wrong network from the beginning. It probably should have been on USA or a Lifetime. Too many people compared it to Grey's Anatomy which has been overtaken by the characters finding less time to deal with actual patients and more time with sleeping with each other. Anyway, I liked how it was more on the medical side like Royal Pains although I couldn't watch every scene of medical related stuff. They did do a lot of operations. Anyway, I liked the character of Emily who was flawed but not dramatically or tragically so. Just normal. 
