Cancellation isn’t quite the automatic execution it used to be for TV shows.

This month, NBC picked up Brooklyn Nine-Nine just a day after Fox laid it to rest. Fox resuscitated Last Man Standing a year after ABC killed the six-season Tim Allen comedy.

And on Monday came news that Amazon Studios was in talks to save The Expanse after it was cancelled by Syfy.

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Those first two shows were brought back by companies that own the series, which remains the most important factor in a network’s decision to save a show.

Since program-ownership rules were relaxed in the 1990s, “We saw the networks gravitate toward content produced by their own studios,” says Stacey Schulman, chief marketing officer for ad firm Katz Media Group. “So it’s not surprising if shows in danger of being cancelled go to other networks” that own them and profit from selling reruns to other outlets.

At the same time, viewers have used social media to amplify their protests, adding an influential voice.

Fans immediately took to Twitter to protest the Brooklyn cancellation, after five seasons. There was a vociferous online campaign to save The Expanse, now in its third season, while fans are still battling to find a new home for Fox’s Lucifer and to persuade NBC to give a second reprieve to Timeless (which seems unlikely). The network resurrected it last year two days after its cancellation, partly due to fan fervour.

And Netflix is now considering a rescue of another cancelled show, the Toronto-shot Designated Survivor, if it can wrest U.S. streaming rights. Kiefer Sutherland starred in the drama, which ran for two seasons on ABC, as a low-level cabinet member who became president after a terrorist attack.

When it came to saving Brooklyn, NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt credited the network’s long ties to star and former Saturday Night Live cast member Andy Samberg, the show’s producers and, especially, diehard fans.

“It was really the explosion from the fans ... which only helps,” he said. “We love when the fans yell and scream and go to Twitter. (But) we love even more when they watch the show.”

Resurrecting a show serves as good, fan-friendly publicity for networks used to hearing complaints.

With the NBC-Universal partnership on Brooklyn, “All the ducks lined up,” says Lisa Herdman, senior vice-president at Los Angeles-based ad firm RPA. “NBC is the hero and the fans are all happy.”

Network fit matters, too. Fox plans to promote Friday’s male-skewing Last Man on its new Thursday Night Football.

“Social media is absolutely playing a bigger role. It gets louder and louder. But if the negotiation isn’t right for a particular network, that’s not going to matter,” Herdman says.

Other factors also have changed the dynamics in favour of second chances. More cable and streaming services mean more potential homes for shows with loyal fan bases, including some where the size of the audience is less important.

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In recent years, cancelled network shows have jumped to cable (ABC’s Cougar Town to TBS, ABC’s Nashville to CMT, NBC’s Southland to TNT). And streaming services have picked up others (Fox’s The Mindy Project went to Hulu and NBC’s Community to Yahoo). Some cancelled cable shows also have moved elsewhere (A&E’s Longmire to Netflix; FX’s Damages to DirecTV).

Immediately after Brooklyn, Lucifer and The Expanse were cancelled, fans sparked trending hashtags (#SaveLucifer) .

Although enthusiastic online campaigns are no guarantee of a show’s survival, “They’re direct evidence of a fan base that does not want a piece of content to go away,” Schulman says. Networks “used to say we’re getting fan mail or hate mail. Now, they can capture all of that in social media.”