Nickelodeon cancels ‘Victorious’ – Victoria Justice and creator Dan Schneider respond

Nickelodeon has official announced its popular sitcom Victorious will be canceled after the upcoming third season. The announcement comes on the heels of the network’s cancelation of iCarly – although both shows will live on with a crossover spin-off series titled Sam & Cat as well as the iCarly spin-off, Gibby.

From Nickelodeon’s statement:

Nickelodeon will not be moving forward with production on a fourth season of Victorious following the final season that will premiere this fall … We are very proud of the show, its very talented cast, and our audience will continue to see many of them in upcoming new Nickelodeon projects.

19-year-old Victoria Justice talked with Mmm-mag.com about the announcement:

“We will not be expecting a fourth season, this is the first time I’ve talked about it. I just found out a couple of days ago that we’re not coming back. It’s sad because I’ve been with Nickelodeon since I was 12 years old and I became a family with my Victorious cast. We spent a lot of time together and bonded for sure — I’ll look back on the experience very fondly. It’s a little shocking and a little bittersweet, but at the end of the day it might not be such a bad thing — we all want to do our own thing and continue to grow.”

Victoria shared this upbeat tweet yesterday:

3 Emmy nominations is not a bad send off… #GoingOutOnTop #LoveUguys :{)

Dan Schneider, the creator of both iCarly and Victorious, was a little less diplomatic with his reaction posted on his blog:

Victorious

Hey guys! If I misspell anything in this post, please forgive me – I’m in the back seat of a car, typing on my phone!

Okay, first things first…

There is a whole NEW season of Victorious coming your way. We just finished shooting 15 new episodes, and they’re amazing. If you love Victorious, I feel sure you will love the NEW episodes coming!

By now, a lot of you have heard that Victorious will not be returning for a 4th season. That is true. This was the network’s decision – not mine.

Please understand: Almost all Nickelodeon live-action shows have a life span of about 60 episodes. We made around 60 episodes of Drake & Josh… of Zoey 101… and we made 41 episodes of The Amanda Show… and all those shows were big hits.

So, it’s not unusual for a Nick show to do a run of just 60 episodes. I would love to have made more than 60 of Victorious, but that’s how it usually goes.

I’ve heard some people use the word “canceled” – which isn’t accurate in this case. The term “canceled” is usually used when a TV show gets poor ratings, causing the network to end the show early. TV shows that aren’t doing well get canceled.

Ratings for Victorious have always been high, thanks to the FANS. Also, just last month, Victorious was nominated for three Emmys. And just before that, Victorious won the Kids Choice Award for Favorite TV Show.

We’re all extremely proud of the show, and all we’ve accomplished.

Also – and it’s really important that you know this – the network’s decision about Victorious had nothing to do with “Gibby” or “Sam & Cat”. I promise. Even if there was no “Gibby” and no “Sam & Cat” – the network still would have ended Victorious after its 60-episode run.

I know that some of you are upset and angry – and while I feel terrible about that, I’m also flattered by it. I really appreciate that you care so much. It means you love the show, which makes me feel very proud.

But I ask that you please not be angry with Victoria, or Leon, Liz, Ariana, Avan… or ANY of the Victorious cast members or staff. They all wanted Victorious to continue – so did I.

But remember! Stay psyched about the 15 new episodes of Victorious coming your way!

And I hope you’ll continue to support Victoria Justice, and me, and all the stars of Victorious. I can almost guarantee you – they will make a big impact on the future of entertainment.

And finally… of course… I will keep making the best, funniest TV shows I know how to make, for as long as people have fun watching them.

I’ll see you online later, and I’ll try to answer some of your questions.

Thanks for listening. As always, please be nice to each other. 🙂

Love,
–Dan (a.k.a. DanWarp)

This is pure speculation on my part, but I think everyone here is avoiding the obvious reasons for the cancelation of two VERY popular shows — the stars are too big for just a Nickelodeon show. Both Miranda Cosgrove (Carly) and Victoria Justice (Tori) are very young, very popular actresses whose resumes include the ability to sing. They are both a HUGE commodity on the open market (Miranda was already the Guinness Book of World Records record holder for highest paid child star at $180,000 per episode) and I’m sure neither of them want to pigeon hole themselves as their Nickelodeon sitcom characters. So, either the stars wanted to move on, or else Nickelodeon didn’t want to shell out the huge paychecks that both actresses would demand (and deserve) for staying on.

It seems clear from Nickelodeon’s commitment to two spin-off series that they believe in the viability of both the iCarly and Victorious franchises, but I think they realize they can maintain relatively the same size audiences without shelling out for thei two HUGE stars. But there’s no need for anybody to be upset here because the situation seems ideal for everyone! Not only do Miranda and Victoria get to commit to their post-Nickelodeon careers full time, but Nickelodeon gets the reputation as a superstar launcher so they won’t have any problems getting the cream of the crop of upcoming young talent!

Either way, it is the end of a great run for two of the most successful kid’s series in the history of television, and the beginning of two careers of two talented young women that have an amazingly long journey ahead of them! (I’ve posted before about how I think Victoria Justice has everything it takes to be one of the biggest stars on the planet, so I’m looking forward to folloeing the next chapter of her career.)