I am – Hercules!!

“Passionate (if small) audiences have helped save shows such as Arrested Development and Veronica Mars in past years,” wrote Gary Levin in his April 12 “Save Our Shows” piece in USA Today, “though Mars' luck has run out.” Each year around this time, Levin talks to the networks and divides their scripted series into three categories: 1) “Renewed or almost,” 2) “On the bubble,” and 3) “Gone or nearly dead.” “Mars” falls into that third category. Others on that doomed list include “Studio 60,” “Raines,” “Standoff” and “Close to Home.” USA Today’s track record is not perfect; at least a couple of its “nearly dead” series over the years lived to see another season. “Renewed or almost” shows, according to the paper, include “‘Til Death,” “Shark,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “One Tree Hill,” “Smallville” and “Rules of Engagement.” “Bubble shows” on the paper’s list this year include “Gilmore Girls,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Medium,” “Scrubs,” “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “Supernatural,” “Friday Night Lights,” “The Knights of Prosperity,” “What About Brian,” “The Ghost Whisperer,” “Jericho,” “The Unit,” and “The Winner.” A complete list of all the scripted primetime network shows and the categories in which they fell can be found here. You can vote to save your favorites among the bubble shows here. Fans are not as quick to write “Mars” off. On April 12, the same day USA Today put “Mars” in the “done” column, E! Online announced that “Mars” and “Gilmore” were the two top finishers in its “Save One Show” poll. “Gilmore” was ahead, but only in the final lap, as E!’s Kristin Veitch explained:

Here's the play-by-play: For the first few days of SOS voting, CW fan favorites Veronica Mars and One Tree Hill were neck and neck, switching off between first and second place. Then, Veronica pulled ahead, steadily climbing and reaching nearly 40 percent of the votes, making it the clear winner for the next week and a half. Then suddenly, in the last 24 hours of voting, you Gilmore fans must have put the pedal to the metal and rallied in all the right places, because the Girls pulled out of third place to come out on top—right before the Save One Show poll closed on Friday at midnight.

“Mars” mastermind Rob Thomas, upon learning of his show’s strong silver-medal finish on April 12, maintained that the CW had yet to make a decision on whether or not his show would receive a fourth season:

"More than ever, the letter-writing, vote-casting, plane-circling efforts of our fans may be just the push we need to make it back on the air."

Find the complete results of E!’s “Save One Show” poll here. NBC has not yet announced when or if “Studio 60’s” final handful of produced first-season episodes will air. The final five hours of “Mars’” third season (including its May 22 two-hour season finale) begin airing May 1. The broadcast networks announce their 2007-2008 schedules on these dates: NBC May 14. ABC May 15. MyNet May 15. CBS May 16. The CW May 17. Fox May 17.

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