Why The Hallmark Channel Canceled The Martha Stewart Show

Martha Stewart built an empire on having a recipe for just about everything, but even she couldn't find one that made "The Martha Stewart Show" work for the Hallmark Channel's budget. Despite growing ratings in its daytime slot, the show simply became too costly for the network.

The successor to Stewart's long-running "Martha Stewart Living," the daytime lifestyle and talk program was a syndicated show before its move to the Hallmark Channel in September 2010. At the time, there was a lot of excitement surrounding the acquisition, with the network president Bill Abbott, in a press release, framing it as "a match made in TV heaven" as "The Martha Stewart Show" was set to anchor a new Martha-branded daytime slot. But when the premiere episode drew just about 199,000 viewers, Hallmark had to cut three hours from the originally scheduled eight-hour daily programming block and bring back reruns of "Little House on the Prairie." The show's ratings averaged about 225,000 viewers per episode in 2011, but only about 41,000 of them were women among the targeted age of 25-54, ultimately leading to its cancellation in January 2012 after just two seasons.

Although Hallmark kept the financial terms of its deal with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) a secret, promotional cost for the variety show reportedly ran nearly to about $10 million. Roughly $5- $8 million was spent on "Make the Move With Martha," the largest advertising campaign in Hallmark Channel history at the time. With a required live studio audience, "The Martha Stewart Show" was relatively expensive, and the ad revenue couldn't justify the production cost.

Meanwhile, MSLO also felt the huge financial strain as "The Martha Stewart Show" was not a moneymaker for the company and there were plans not to renew its expiring lease at the high-end Manhattan studio, where it was being filmed. "Our expensive studio lease is expiring next year, and we will either bring television in-house or find lower cost space, which will significantly reduce our TV operating margins" then-MSLO president and COO Lisa Gersh said at a UBS investor conference in December 2011, per SheKnows. Ultimately, the cancellation was not the end of Stewart's career as her baking series "Martha Bakes" which premiered on PBS in 2013 went on to become one of the most successful baking shows on television.