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Future Crumbling for FOX's 'The Inside'
By Brian Ford Sullivan
LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The future of FOX's "The Inside" began to crumble over the weekend as co-creator/executive producer Tim Minear confirmed FOX has passed on extending the options of the cast, a likely harbinger to its cancellation.
"While the network hasn't said to me that they won't order more episodes, it sure does shake out that way," Minear said in a post to the Buffistas.org bulletin board. "On Thursday they needed to extend their options on the cast and decided not to. Considering it would have been chump change for them, it basically means we're done."
Minear went on to detail his hopes for an eventual DVD release - "I'm hoping it's gonna be a 15 episode set, including the two, you counted right, TWO! unaired pilots" - and noted that FOX still plans to run the show for the time being however "I'm gonna make my bet right now that we'll have, not including any unaired pilots, six unaired episodes featured on that DVD set."
Currently back-to-back episodes are scheduled for this Wednesday ("The Loneliest Number," "The Thief of Hearts") with additional airings slated for July 13 ("Declawed") and July 27 ("Aidan").
To date this season "The Inside" has averaged a far from spectacular 4.23 million viewers, ahead of its repeat lead-ins "That '70s Show" (4.10 million) and "Stacked" (3.41 million) during the same period. Not helping matters was that "The Inside" faced off against ABC's surprise summer hit "Dancing With the Stars" (14.94 million on average) in the Wednesday, 9:00/8:00c hour.
Speaking about his overall experience, Minear noted: "This is pretty much what I expected, which doesn't mean I didn't pour every bit of energy, time and care I had into 13 episodes for the last year. I never consider it a waste of time. Or a waste of, well, their money." In a later post, Minear also mentioned: "I discourage strongly any save-this-show attempts by anyone. It would be pointless and a waste of time."