Nickelodeon Yanks Korra from TV; the Rest of Book 3 Will Only Air Online (UPDATED)

Nickelodeon Yanks Korra from TV; the Rest of Book 3 Will Only Air Online (UPDATED)

So it's late on Wednesday, which means we're already closing in Friday, the weekend, and two brand-new episodes of The Legend of Korra.

Alas, it turns out only two of those last three things are true.

Only one new episode of Korra will air on Nickelodeon this Friday, according to Nick and More. And it will be the last episode of Book 3 to grace your television screen (provided you still use a teleivision to watch television). What's going on? Well, details are scarce at the moment, but here's Korra's co-creator Bryan Konietzko to fill in the gap:

[source]

Yes, that's correct. For some (currently) unknown reason, Nick has pulled Episodes 9 through 13 from its schedule, and from the looks of Konietzko's Tumblr (which is where the image above came from; Korra co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino posted it as well), it appears those episodes will air exclusively on the web.

This is just the latest weird development in Book 3's checkered existence. After several episodes were accidentally leaked online, Nickelodeon rushed it onto the air with zero fanfare, and has been airing two episodes each week. Obviously answers will be forthcoming at Korra's Comic-Con panel this Friday, but in the meantime, this is everything we know.

I'll still have a review of Episode 8, "The Terror Within" for you on Friday (it's good, as is Episode 9, "The Stakeout," but we may have to discuss that one later, I guess), and after that, who the heck knows.

UPDATE #1: TV.com reached out to Nickelodeon for comment, and while the network declined to elaborate, a rep confirmed that we'll have more news on Friday.

UPDATE #2: According to TVLine, the show is not cancelled (even though Konietzko already told us that), and production on Book 4 has already commenced, including the animation by Studio Mir. Regarding what's left of Book 3, episodes will be rolled out weekly beginning Friday, August 1, through various digital platforms, including Nick.com (which hasn't hosted any new episodes all season), Amazon (which has been releasing them on a week's delay), and places like Google Play and presumably iTunes.

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Dunking_dove

Oct 20, 2014

Once again its all about the have's and have not's. Soon only the rich enthusiast will have access to things such as these while the rest of us will be subjected to more brain killing reality shows. I on the other hand will have my reruns, books and my own animated shows I make for my self. So sucks to be you, you big greedy corporations! and your expensive crappy TV channels that show a big bag of flaming dog poo. ;p

DisneyVillain

Aug 06, 2014

All they have left now is TMNT and even that is starting to look bleak the way they barely air new episodes. Nickelodeon is nothing but a mess now. Once TMNT is gone, I'm taking Nick off my television.

Q1DM6

Jul 27, 2014

They absolutely destroy cartoons by airing them in uncertain patterns and schedules. Look what happened to the absolutely excellent Tron: Uprising.

kcancelmi

Jul 26, 2014

Hopefully the avatar series will be picked up by a different network once nick finishes fucking with LOK... Or a netflix exlcusive, thatd be nice. I love the series and if it ends because of nick's mishandling (ATLA wasnt handled the best either) it'll truly be sad.

ArkhamNative

Jul 25, 2014

"Snappish" -- Janet's characterization of Korra sometimes. I'll go with that. :)

SokkaAppa

I don't like this.

Bloodangel

First Young Justice, now Korra! I blame kids for being dumb and their parents for letting them watch dumb shows

darkitp

So gravity falls and korra Next friday Best Weekend ever

layton2012

Jul 24, 2014

Book 4 is in production, and will air eventually, whether it airs on Nick is another question entirely, but I have no doubts it will air, most likely completely digital. Regardless of the quality of Book 2, the decline of Korra has more to do with nick's treatment of it than anything else. Book 3 has been surprisingly excellent so it is a shame that Nick is treating it this badly. At least it is going digital and we will be able to resume watching shortly even if is on the internet. I will most likely buy it all on amazon, so I can at least watch it on my TV. The less bad news for Korra, and more for the status of the franchise, if Nick can't get people to watch Korra live now, I don't see much hope for the franchise continuing on Nick after book 4.

emmy021889

what? ehhhrrrrmmm k

Watashii

What! Why can't cartoons just have a regular schedule like network TV shows. I hope they don't cancel the Avatar series. Maybe they can end The Legend of Korra, and start a new legend, considering its messiness since Book 2. If they wanted ratings, they shouldn't have aired it on Friday nights, during the summer.

Writerpatrick

This is not going to help deter Internet leaks.

It might be that Nick wants to use it to boost their own possibly pay online service. But it won't work. Someone would rip and repost it for free elsewhere.

It suggests that there won't be a book 4, although that could get picked up by someone like Netflix. But it also suggests that Korra could be the last Airbender TV series. Regardless of how they try to spin it, it looks and quacks like a duck.

This is just crazy. Korra book 3 went months with no word about a release date, then the huge leak, then a surprise rush to air, during mid-summer, doubling or tripling episodes to burn through them quickly, then "cancelled" from TV and tossed out as a web series? What's wrong at Nickelodeon? People have gotten fired for far less.

But on the plus side, RWBY season 2 starts today(!!). The two things that helped me get through the self-centered and almost failure-at-every-turn Korra in Book 2, was "The Legend of Jinora" story line, and RWBY.

That episode of RWBY was amazing

mcepin3

I don't really care,since I dl everything to watch.

Just a question please don't get mad: Why do you download instead of just streaming it?

WavSlave

For me, my PC's local video player gives me far more features and much better playback control than anything else I've ever used online. I also like making static images from frame grabs at times. It's nice to be able to step through something frame by frame to select the optimum one. Plus, a file can be kept forever if I deem it worthy of saving. Sure, I know I'm overlooking the whole legality of the process but that's a separate kettle of fish.

Oh ok, I did not know about all that. Thanks for the response.

SinspaW

Streaming quality can't compare to downloaded 720p quality which one can find online.

antdude

Commercials?

I don't know...I dl it and if it's worth keeping it,I keep show,if it sucks toward end or I stop watching,I delete over time...

EsmeBuffay

This freaks me out, it makes Korra's future incredibly shaky for a number of reasons. Lets start with how much will this affect book four? Is it too going to be a web exclusive? If so I can't see them getting the same kind of budget that they get for tv, which will mean the animation will take a massive hit. I watch it online anyway (I honestly would watch it on tv but it doesn't air in my country) but does that mean the videos quality will be lower? I've enjoyed a pretty good quality video this season online because of HD channels rips so I'm dubious. Suffice it to say Korra's future is now having me worried.

Savvytvfan91

What the crap??? This better not affect Book 4, I watch it all online anyway.

Akyriel

I've lost track of just about every show on Nickelodeon. They seem to air stuff when they want at whatever times they want, then the show disappears for a bit then comes back to be sort of be bounced around again or moved between Nick and Nicktoons. I never saw the remainder of Avatar from where I left off, or Danny Phantom, or Kung Fu Panda, etc.

Apparently, the only stuff that works are 'toons with annoying, high-pitched yelling characters like Timmy of Fairly Oddparents or Spongebob.

Agreed 1000% on the "annoying, high-pitched yelling characters". That and the over-saturated, flashy colors seems like mind-crack for kids. It's sort of like food companies adding sugar and fat to foods solely to increase sales. (They even add sugar to salt!...) So what if the (possible, hypothetical) result is epidemic obesity and diabetes, or ADHD and autism from childhood sensory overload. The companies have increased profits and that's all that matters. (imho, drop mike, etc.)

Oddly enough, I used to sort of like Fairly Oddparents, but as I noted, I lost track of this too, and even thought the series was done a while back, but it's become too much to watch.

dostunuz

People grew up with ATLA never liked Korra that much. I understand their decision. Heroine doesn't work on cartoon guys.

petiaivailova1

ATLA is better because it's mythology and there is great war and 2 amazing characters (Zuko and Aang). TLOK is good show - I really hope that there will be Book 4 - I don't watch this dumb channel anyway :(

ben45tpy

I have no idea what's going on with Korra this year. This must be the craziest reaction to a leak we've ever seen. They'd better not cancel Season 4.

Gus_Weal

WTF!!! Ratings... ratings... RATINGS! Everything always works around "ratings". GREAT shows are plagued with bad "ratings", which I am still very unsure how these ratings are "guess-timated". I mean HOLY... bad timeslots, one-time airings, people using some different sorts of magic called the "internet" to watch. So many reasons why good/great shows are diseased with "low ratings". The future of Televised entertainment looks dim...

Wambamsam

ratings my ass. you think this is about ratings. nickelodeon has had a loooooong history of manipulating the ratings so it looks good on things they like. in 2000 they wanted spongebob squareputz to be the most popular show. yeah wanted. as in not looking at the real data and deciding what to promote more. so they took their most popular show at the time being rugrats, added a ton of lame new characters. (chuckie's sister, second dog etc). then cancelled it so the writers could work on a crappy spin off instead. when that bombed they took it all away and filled it all with spoogebob squarepants. they los tthe real most popular show for the thing that brought you c-a-m-p-f-i-r-e-s-o-n-g, and somehow that's a win.

fleur-de-lune

Time to switch to a new network!!!!

bluemorphotat

That's soo weird! I love the series although I am a bit behind (just finished series 2)

anthonyclay37

I only watch it online and not on any official Nick site. Im sure most adult fans do the same thing. I have no idea when its even on normally and im not sitting around watching Nickelodeon on a friday.

RyanSanders2

oh why this any surprise, any good cartoons dont last long, while the stupid ones go on for years

SO , Anyone going to Comic-Con this Friday ?

Eunomiac

Well this is probably the singly most surprising development I can recall ever happening in television (barring horrible accidents and the like).

Somewhere in the bureaucratic hierarchy, someone's shit has hit someone's fan, and Nickelodeon has given themselves till Friday to hose down the walls.

I do not envy whomever is behind this public relations abortion.

scottd2242

Can't say I'm surprised. The entire season airing in six weeks felt like a burn off

either that or to get the leaked episodes out of the way.

AngelColn

OK, seriously and pardon me, WTF!?!?

soutarm

I miss Aang.

Nerdnot

I am not honestly surprised. The ratings are extremely low, but for freaking sakes, I bet you about 50% of people that show up for the Korra panel won't have any idea that book 3 has a premiere date, let alone it's half way done with it's current book.

I thought it was Season 1 was Books one and two, and season two was book 3 and 4?

Staff

noelrk

Production coding wise, Book 3 episodes are still classified as Season 2. Animation production is weird.

alyxkay

WHAT!

Is this the reason it hasn't been in the OnDemand lineup yet?

Ozlex11

WHAT!!! I'm very unhappy about this direction, and where it is leading.

Demonstrable

Apparently the members of the decision making team at Nickelodeon have all been replaced by manatees (in business suits) pushing around "scheduling balls".

karamars

That's idiotic but Nick's not known for making the best decisions

Also this is the best season of Korra so I don't understand why this is happening?

iheartfrosty

Well, this is stupid. Sorry, I actually watching tv...on my tv, call me old-fashioned...

torque_smacky

I say this is the fault of the parents. Every kid who's picking dopey kidcoms over Korra needs to be grounded, or they'll never learn.

Ian281099

Well, this is very interesting and very worrisome. I''ll have to keep an eye out for their panel next weekend.

After a quick Wikipedia read, I noticed that the viewers for this season have been extremely low. Apparently, the shows ratings have been going down since the start but in this season they've been pretty bad.

P.S: Didnt the Last Airbender also have an episode called "The Stakeout".

AllieAllie

It leaves me worried for how book 4 will be aired. They basically signed a deal to air all four books so they can't cancel it. But I'm not looking forward to seeing how they'll eff up the scheduling for book 4.

RaizenYusuke

That seems really strange to yank the rest of the season because of bad ratings. I don't understand why they don't try to put Korra on a different time or have repeat showings. I'm usually out on Friday and have to watch episodes online because Nick only airs new episodes once and done. I remember with the original series Nick would air the show on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays that way it gives people to chances to watch it. Ever since Korra stated airing they've only aired episodes once. Nick makes is hard to catch the show if you miss Friday. On Demand doesn't have any of the episodes up either.

ayyyy1

No, it didn't

Nickelodeon Yanks Korra from TV; the Rest of Book 3 Will Only Air Online (UPDATED)

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