You can blame it on this for not being picked back up...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlashForward_(season_1)

Look at the amount of viewers and how they drastically declined mid season.


Then compare it to this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing...U.S._season_10)

20 million viewers vs 5 million....

Big shocker which they're gonna choose to continue.
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Yeah, intelligent shows rarely do well. I'm mystified by the success of Lost in a time where the average viewer is fascinated by crap like DWTS.
One of the most telling comments I read about the current season of DWTS went something like, "When you can't tell who's the star and who's the professional dancer on a team, there's a problem." Tune in next season for Obama Girl, the "Don't tase me bro" guy, and the runner-up from The Bachelorette. :-)
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So Flash Forwards been cancelled? Bummer...
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FlashForward's viewship actually declined at a steady pace through the entire season. Pilot at 12.47 million and finale at 4.96? Ouch!

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As much as I enjoyed the show, the storyline was a bit convoluted and drawn out with A LOT of repetition. It's really no wonder that some people got bored and tuned out.
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That may be true, but it doesn't mean that the rest of us should be forced to watch the lowest common denominator crap like America Idol and DWTS.

If the Roman Empire had TV, they would have aired shows like Idol right before the Fall.

"The decline of the Roman Empire refers to the societal collapse encompassing both the gradual disintegration of the political, economic, military, and other social institutions of Rome and the barbarian invasions that were its final doom."

We are being invaded, the economy sucks, the military is under constant threat of downsizing, and Dancing with the stars has higher ratings than a show that actually makes you think.

/rant off.
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I can't stand any of the reality shows, never have going back to that first year of "reality" crap when Survivor and Who Wants to be a Millionaire were the hottest shows going. You're quite correct in that it is lowest common domininator swill designed to appeal primarily to the drooling masses that don't want to think for themselves and prefer to have everything spoon fed to them by mass media.

That said, I fail to see how you're being forced to watch any of the drivel being force fed to the drooling class. There's lots of insightful, intelligent and thought provoking programming if you want to find it. If you can't what's to stop you from turning off the TV altogether and going out to a play or art gallery or museum or any other activity that provides stimulation? I wouldn't have said FlashForward was a particularly thought provoking show. It was a cool concept that was entertaining in a conspiracy theory kind of way that, unfortunately, got bogged down and lost in it's on storyline hence it's loss of ratings.

For the most part, intelligent and thought provoking television is just not going to be found on the traditional big networks or (to a lesser degree) the premium cable networks that are now supplanting them. Those networks are orientated entirely towards entertainment as a vector for selling commercials..... dumb attracts viewership and viewership attracts advertising. BBC, National Geographic, some of Discovery, parts of CBC, etc.... they all produce top notch programming that requires thought and intelligence to get the most of out.
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ABC certainly didn't do it any favors. With a 3 month hiatus, and no reruns to let viewers refresh their memories of the convoluted plot, I'm surprised the ratings didn't drop further.
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I'm pretty sure that it was only brought back after the hiatus only to play out the remaining episodes out because; a) they'd already been shot, b) there might be a revival of interest. According to the episode list that 3 month hiatus occurred after Episode 10 and by that time viewership had already dropped by almost 50% from the pilot. I remember everyone at work was really excited about it when it was first released and by Christmas no one really cared anymore. I watched it all the way through but my wife just couldn't get into it and gave up after the 3rd or 4th episode.

It didn't get canceled because it was too smart. It got canceled because the plot was too convoluted and dragged out for most people to really get into it. The finale left the story line open though, perhaps one of the smaller cable networks will pick it up and breathe new life into a second season.
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