“Roswell” Heads to Planet Rerun

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From: Yahoo News

Thu Apr 11, 3:33 PM ET

Save your Tabasco sauce, Roswell fans. This time, it’s really over.

In what was seen as a mere formality, UPN officially pulled the plug Wednesday on its sci-fi soap opera after one season on the network and two seasons on the WB. The series finale will air May 14 at 9 p.m.

“I would like to thank Twentieth Century Fox Television, UPN and especially our fans whose combined efforts helped get us a third season for Roswell,” executive producer Jason Katims said in a statement. “[Executive Producer] Ronald D. Moore and I had the fans very much on our minds when we were writing this final episode. We felt they deserved a great ending.”

They deserved something for all that Tabasco sauce they purchased. Rabid support from Roswell fans helped keep the series alive when it was dumped by the WB last year. After sending network execs countless bottles of Tabasco–the drink of choice for the show’s heartthrob aliens–UPN picked up the struggling series not long after it acquired Buffy the Vampire Slayer (news – Y! TV) from its competitor.

Despite the new network, Roswell’s ratings showed no improvement. The Tuesday night series, starring Brendan Fehr, Jason Behr, Shiri Appleby and Majandra Delfino, has averaged 3 million viewers this season–a 46 percent drop from its Buffy the Vampire Slayer lead-in audience.

The show’s final four (news – web sites) episodes will begin airing April 23.

Meantime, Roswell fans can at least take heart that the show will live on in reruns. Starting in January, the Sci Fi Network will begin airing repeats of the show’s 62 episodes, part of a deal the cable net signed with 20th Century Fox Television when it picked up The X-Files (news – Y! TV) reruns.