Shadowhunters may be the most popular show you’ve never watched. Well, maybe “popular” isn’t the right word — after all, TV network Freeform cancelled the YA fantasy show in the middle of its third season, although there are several new episodes yet to air. “Beloved” may be more accurate. The Shadowhunters fanbase is incredibly passionate; thanks to their efforts, it won the award for Best Show of 2018 at this year’s People’s Choice Awards, beating out more mainstream pics like This Is Us.
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Conventional wisdom teaches that you shouldn’t antagonize a fanbase like that, but Freeform just couldn’t help itself. During a recent “POPnKnowledge” airing of Toy Story — that means they air Toy Story but insert little trivia bubbles every few seconds — the network had some fun during the scene where Woody shakes a Magic 8 Ball and asks if his owner Andy will pick him over cool new toy Buzz Lightyear. The answer: “DON’T COUNT ON IT.” And Freeform just couldn’t help itself:
Seems kind of messed up for @FreeformTV to show this during toy story? Funny how they can make fun of #SaveShadowhunters and yet continue to use one of the actors from the show they cancelled to promote their 25 days of Christmas. @ShumDarioNews @BasicShadowStuf you seen this?! pic.twitter.com/jmN5xivmo8
— d (@malecdsrvbetter) December 15, 2018
"“Will Freeform save Shadowhunters if I keep tweeting about it?”“DON’T COUNT ON IT.”"
Now, that’s pretty funny, but the Shadowhunters fandom didn’t see it that way. Fans quickly took to Twitter to rag on Freeform for disrespecting them, which Freeform really should have expected. Come on, your joke was about Shadowhunters fans tweeting about the show — you didn’t think they’d tweet about this? The outcry got so bad that Freeform even tweeted an apology:
This was a mistake. We never intended to disrespect the Shadowhunters fandom. We apologize for this. https://t.co/CNz7Tv6FQ1
— Freeform (@FreeformTV) December 16, 2018
Shadowhunters, about a group of humans with angelic blood who protect humanity from demonkind, will air the back half of its third season starting in February of 2019. Although Freeform cancelled the series, it did order two final episodes so the story could wrap up. Now let’s see if it can behave itself between now and the series finale.
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h/t Deadline, The A.V. Club