South of Nowhere is an American teen drama television series created by Thomas W. Lynch. Aimed primarily at teenagers, it first aired on November 4, 2005 and was one of six original series on The N. The second half of the third and final season aired October 10, 2008 and the final episode aired on December 12, 2008. Live webisodes were also created to accompany each episode in the season 2 storyline, and were seen exclusively through The N's website on the Click. The show follows the lives of the members of the Carlin family as they adjust to moving from Ohio to Los Angeles, California. One of the main focuses include the relationship between Spencer Carlin and her bisexual friend, Ashley Davies. The close friendship between Ashley and Spencer led Spencer to question her own sexuality, a subject which created controversy before the show first aired. It was the first series on The N to deal with such a subject relating to the primary characters. South of Nowhere was positively reviewed by Variety, Boston Globe, The New York Times, among others. The series was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2006, 2007 and 2009.
Each episode of South of Nowhere is half an hour in length with commercials ; the pilot episode was one hour. The N initially ordered 11 episodes of the series. Many people thought that The N cut the season in half, but all they did was give South of Nowhere a four-week break. The show returned to The N's lineup in January 2006 with the remaining episodes from the original order to air. During the break between episodes, interviews were shown with two of the stars, Gabrielle Christian and Matt Cohen, during commercial breaks. The second season was originally set to begin on October 6, 2006, but was pushed up to September 29, 2006. Its season premiere followed the sixth-season premiere of Degrassi: The Next Generation. The network officially renewed South of Nowhere for a third season, and 16 episodes had been ordered. Eight episodes aired from August 10, 2007 to September 21, 2007. On February 27, 2008, it was officially announced on the N'sider podcast that South of Nowhere was to be canceled after the end of season 3. On February 28, an official announcement was made at the show's website that this will be the last season. Promos began airing in March 2008 stating the show would be returning April 11. However, on March 21, it was announced that the final half of the third season had been pushed back to the fall. South of Nowhere returned for the remainder of its third season on October 10, 2008 and ended its run on December 12, 2008.
The show's second and third season theme song is "Wasted" by LP.
For iTunes and Amazon, the first season theme music was replaced with "Lift Me Up" by Gena Olivier.
The song used in the trailers leading up to the show's airdate was "No Money Fun" by Oly.
"Reasons to Fall" by Lauren Hoffman is used multiple times in "The Morning After". Another song by Hoffman, "Ghost You Know", was used during the ending scene of the season one finale. Her songs "Broken", "Hope You Don't Mind" and "Magic Stick" are also used throughout the series.
The song used in early promos for season 1 is "Perfect Vision" by Montag.
The song used in the first promo for season 3 is "Deep" by Ben Broussard.
The song used in the promo for the last half of the series is "Goodbye" by Secondhand Serenade.
The song used in the episode "Girls Guide To Dating" is "Something In Me" by Katelyn Tarver.
The song used in "Behind The Music" is "What I Wouldn't Give" by Skylar Grey.
The song used twice is "Hollywood" by Conex.
Release
Syndication
Reruns aired on MuchMusic in Canada in 2011 until 2012. Reruns aired on TeenNick in the United States from 2008–2010 and then again in 2012. Since 2012, the series hasn't been broadcast on any other television station since. In 2017 the show began reruns yet again on the Logo TV station.
Nickelodeon and Amazon.com struck a deal to produce DVDs of new and old Nickelodeon shows. Amazon will be making the discs, cover art, and disc art themselves.
Streaming
South of Nowhere is available to download online on the "TV Shows" section of Apple's iTunes Store and the episodes are formatted for use with the Apple iPod. The show is also available for download on Amazon Unbox service and viewable on a compatible PC, TV, or portable video player. On all of these copies, the first-season episodes have had the opening and closing theme music replaced with different music. All episodes, as well as the webisodes, can be streamed on The N's video service "The Click". However, this service is only available in selected countries. It is not available in Canada. Episodes can also be viewed on Logo's official website. Season 2 was released on September 16, 2008, through Amazon.com. Season 1 was released on October 21, 2008. These contain the same edits as used on Amazon Unbox. Season 1 does not feature opening credits for the majority of the episodes, though the accompanying music track, "Life Me Up," is used in the closing credits for each. Season 3 was released on June 16, 2009 through Amazon.com.
Reception
Critical
South of Nowhere received positive reviews.
Ratings
Ratings for the second season were up by 35% from season 1 and on November 17, the series reached a high among teens with a 2.16 rating.
