Can "Veronica Mars" Be Saved or Is it Curtains for Our Intrepid Sleuth?

April and May are always rollercoaster rides of emotion for television junkies like myself, as networks begin to shape up their schedules for fall and tease us with a few series renewals and cancellations ahead of the network upfronts in mid-May.

It's quite easy then to fall into a state of constant guessing as to whether your favorite shows will return next season. I was stunned to learn that, according to USA Today's Robert Bianco, the still-on-hiatus Veronica Mars (which, thankfully, returns to the airwaves May 1st and obliterates those dreadful Pussycat Dolls) is already a goner:

"San Francisco, CA: How come Veronica Mars wasn't included on the USA Today "save or axe" survey? Has its fate already been decided?

Robert Bianco: Yes. According to our reporter Gary Levin, the show has been cancelled. And he's almost always right about such things."

Shock, horror.

But fret not, Neptune fans. This morning, Kristin at E! released the results of her seventh annual Save One Show campaign poll. According to Kristin, two series tied for a record-making first place: the CW's own Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars.

As far as I am concerned, it's Gilmore Girls that's a foregone conclusion (and a rightful one as that series has already gone on one season too many), while Veronica Mars is the horse to bet on right now, given that it has not one, but two, potential Season Four strategies in at the network for the fall.

Kristin, meanwhile, plans to send letters of support for both series to The Powers That Be at the CW, which potentially could be promising. While I don't think that any network would make their primetime scheduling decisions based on a letter of recommendation, I do think that the proper positioning of fan bases around specific shows (particularly if said fans are in a desirable demographic) can make the programmers more likely to bring back a series that's on the bubble, especially if license fees or budgets can be chopped down a bit.

In the meantime, Veronica Mars creator and executive producer Rob Thomas issued the following statement regarding the poll's outcome: "We're continually astounded by the fans' willingness to go grassroots to keep us around. More than ever, the letter-writing, vote-casting, plane-circling efforts of our fans may be just the push we need to make it back on the air."

Fingers crossed that Veronica's scheduled finale on May 22nd is a season finale and not a series finale...