Whew! "Longmire," the crime drama series based on books by Tucson Festival of Books-fan favorite Craig Johnson, has been picked up by Netflix for its fourth season.
A&E canceled popular show after three successful seasons, which was a surprise because it was the second highest-rated show on the A&E network. Not to mention it ended on a who-shot-whom cliffhanger.
Johnson, who will be at the book festival March 14-15, lives on a small (by Wyoming standards), 260-acre ranch outside of Ucross (population: 25). He described character Walt Longmire to the Star in 2013 as the cowboy-hat-wearing protagonist of Johnson's multilayer, modern Western thrillers, as the sheriff "in the least populated county in the least populated state."
Written in the first person, Johnson's intricate, complex characters solve crimes in fictional Absaroka County. The television series, darker than the humor-filled books, complemented the books.
People are also reading…
So why was the series — the cable network’s second-most-watched show behind "Duck Dynasty"— canceled?
Well, the viewers were deemed too old for advertisers.
Apparently the median age of a "Longmire" fan is 60 years old, significantly higher than the coveted 18-49 demographic that Madison Avenue and its powerful advertisers care about.
Supposedly, 60-plus viewers are set in their buying habits and don’t like to try new brands, products and services.
The move is supposed to have cost A&E 6-million viewers. Permanently.
A&E could be wrong. That 60-plus audience has money and is willing to spend it, claim other experts.
“Like young people they’re willing to buy new products and experiences that bring that excitement. There is one big difference between young and old,” said marketing consultant Kurt Medina on NPR’s Marketplace earlier this month.
“Fifty-plus-ers account for something like 75 percent of all disposable income in the United States,” he says.
A&E backtracked, according to Johnson's Facebook page: " 'Wait, no! It isn't that the demographic skewed too old; it's that we didn't own the property outright and couldn't make money with it..." In official terms we call it dissembling, but back in the day we just called it lying as fast as a dog can trot."
Apparently the older-crowd's money is good enough for Netflix — and we don't have to speculate whether it was Branch or his father who was shot.
