‘Hellcats’ Is Coming Back, Producer Tom Welling Reveals Cancelation Reason

When actor Michael Rosenbaum announced he was starting a podcast, there shouldn’t have been any doubt in anyone’s mind that it would be good. And funny. Very funny. And informative.

And all of those things it very much is. Rosenbaum started his podcast, “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum,” in July and has been bringing his friends from the entertainment business, as well as other extremely interesting people, into his living room, sitting them down and legitimately find out everything about them. Having tons of fun along the way, of course.

His most recent episode, which was released on Tuesday, reunites him with his former “Smallville” co-star Tom Welling. In it, the two catch up on everything – from Welling’s modeling beginnings to their work together on the WB series and everything in-between.

But one crazy-amazing piece of information jumps right out about two-thirds of the way through.

When Rosenbaum brought up Welling’s turn into producing and mentioned his The CW series “Hellcats,” Welling had some pretty interesting and exciting news to share.

The Hellcats are coming back!

The unlike-anything-else-on-TV show, which starred Aly Michalka and Ashley Tisdale as their characters took on the world of college cheerleading, ran for one season from 2010-11 before getting canceled. A cancelation that Welling attributes to the fact that “the woman who was running The CW left.”

The CW president of entertainment at the time the series began, Dawn Ostroff, decided not to renew her contract and left the network in 2011. Later that year, she joined as the head of Conde Nast Entertainment, where she’s been ever since. Taking over for her at The CW was Mark Pedowitz, who both took on Ostroff’s role, as well as more responsibilities, as the network’s first overall president. He still holds the position.

While that means it might have been his decision to prematurely end the beauty that was “Hellcats,” it also means he’s played his part in its hopeful return. The first and only season of the hour-long dramedy could be seen on Netflix for a while after it was canceled, but it’s long-since ended its run there, as well.

Luckily for both old and new fans, the show is now available on The CW’s online streaming service, CW Seed, which is “free for all,” as their tagline points out. Though it’s wonderful to be able to rewatch the greatness that is “Hellcats” and for new viewers to stumble across it, it still, of course, only has one season. Though, that might be changing, according to Welling.

“Yeah, we’re bringing that [‘Hellcats’] back,” Welling told Rosenbaum during his podcast interview. “Well, apparently, online they’ve [The CW] been airing it. It’s very popular in small doses and they want to re-do it and test it out online and if it goes well then we’ll bring it back on-air again. Because it’s got a little cult following.”

And who says small, but mighty fans can’t make a difference? This is proof that it is possible to make enough noise as fans to make a difference. Whether that’s starting a hashtag campaign on Twitter or simply showing up to watch a show you like, fans do have a lot of power. Even in smaller numbers.

While so much of what made the original series so great was the fabulous character portrayals done by Michalka, Tisdale, Robbie Jones, Matt Barr, Sharon Leal and Heather Hemmens, it seems like they, unfortunately, will not be involved. Welling mentioned re-doing the series, which most likely would entail a complete reboot, which would mean recasting and possibly changing other aspects, like characters and settings.

The CW declined to comment when contacted by International Business Times for more information.

All that we can hope for is that the testing goes well and we get this smart, sassy, exciting, fun, sweet, wonderful show back in our lives and that the original cast finds its way back, even if just for some fun cameo roles.

That shouldn’t be too hard for Michalka, as she’s back in The CW family as part of the incredibly funny and talented “iZombie” cast, and for Leal, who’s been acting on “Supergirl.”

Everyone do a cheer for good luck. This is important it needs all the good cheer-luck it can get.