I am late to this news, as I haven’t seen mention of it at TV, Eh? or other Canadian television sites, but Pure Pwnage has been officially cancelled by Showcase.  Pure Pwnage co-creator/pwnerer Jarett Cale first broke the news with this January 19, 2011 posting.  On January 25, the Showcase Facebook wall confirmed the show’s cancellation.

Reasons given by Cale for the show’s cancellation include “poorer-than-expected ratings, a new direction for [Showcase]…and poorer-than-expected web traffic.”  Pure Pwnage‘s web series is also on hold, perhaps indefinitely.

The most interesting thing about Cale’s post is the announcement of a Pure Pwnage first-TV-season DVD set, due March 2011.  Unfortunately, the set is for Australia, on the ABC DVD label.  It will contain the as-aired shows, as well as supplemental web material.

The Pure Pwnage fans are fairly active in defending the TV show.  There are pro-Pwnage, anti-everything-else ravings on the Showcase Facebook wall, which is to be expected for any cancelled show with a vocal fanbase.  More encouragingly, the fans are actively campaigning for the show to find a new network.

The most logical prospective network for Pure Pwnage is G4 Canada, which hardly produces anything aside from Reviews on the Run and EP Daily.  Pure Pwnage is most likely dead, in both television and webseries forms.  Then again, Kenny vs. Spenny moved from CBC to Showcase.  Paradise Falls managed to drag on until 2008.  Carla Collins still manages to find work.  Hardly anything works the way it should in Canadian television.

As of today, Pure Pwnage has an exact airdate.  The show will debut on Showcase Friday, March 12, 2010 at 10:00 PM, for an eight-episode first season.

This site has mentioned Pure Pwnage before, and not much has changed since November 25, 2009.  Seven of ten behind-the-scenes webisodes are currently up at www.purepwnage.com/tv/ and showcase.ca.

Guest stars for Pure Pwnage‘s first season include Steve “Lips” Kudlow, Billy Mitchell and Kenny Hotz.  Not to niggle, but what does the lead singer/guitarist for Anvil have to do with gaming?

Canwest’s press release for Pure Pwnage describes what “to pwn,” “1337,” “n00b” and FPS mean.  That’s sort of lame, but at least Canwest doesn’t get Derek Harvie’s name wrong.  Oh, wait.

Uh…the press release doesn’t contain the phrase “surprise buttsecks.”  Hey, there’s a positive!  I knew I’d find one!

Principal photography for Pure Pwnage will finish on December 3, 2009.  It began October 21, if show co-creator Jarett Cale’s Twitter account is accurate.  Pure Pwnage, founded in 2004 as a web series, will make its television debut on Showcase early in 2010.

The show is based around Jeremy/teh_pwnerer (Cale), a 26-year-old hardcore gamer/social fuckup.  To continue living in his mother’s basement, Jeremy must get a job.  Brother/filmmaker Kyle (Geoff Lapaire) documents Jeremy’s journey, as Jeremy tries to fux0r life.

Joel Gardiner reprises his web series role as FPS Doug.  Also in the cast are Melanie Scrofano, Simon Wong and Eli Goree.

Pure Pwnage‘s showrunner is Derek Harvie (Testees, The Tom Green Show.)  Catherine Tait (Chilly Beach) and documentarian Ron Mann are executive producers, with Davin Lengyel co-producing.

I haven’t seen the web series, so I can’t comment on whether Pure Pwnage went shit midway through its run.  All I care about is whether the television show will be better or worse than Cock’d Gunns.  This better not be the Hotbox-sized disaster of 2010.