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Everyone knows about the love affair between The CW and L.J. Smith, author of the books that inspired both The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle shows. Both are very successful book series and yet, there is one particular supernatural race that fans of the shows seem to go out of their way to dislike.

I am, of course, referring to witches. Anyone who takes a cursory look at The Vampire Diaries fandom online will notice that Bonnie gets some of the most abuse (possibly tied with Elena herself). People just don’t like her and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why. Kat Graham, the actress who plays her, does a very good job. She is, by no means, a weak character. She does have a fanbase but, outside that, there is a lot of dislike or indifference to Bonnie.

I can understand it, to a degree. Witches are the deus ex machina of The Vampire Diaries. Whenever the writers have painted themselves into a corner or want to undo some major plot point that doesn’t work anymore, Bonnie is always called in to do some spell to solve the problem (the most recent example being where Bonnie was forced by Klaus to undo the binding spell on his family, just in time for them to avoid concurrent death as a result of Finn being staked). However, this is a problem with the writers, and by no means explains the outright animosity some people feel toward Bonnie’s character.

A more pressing example of people’s dislike of witches is The Secret Circle. There is little doubt in my mind that this first season of The Secret Circle is a lot stronger than the first season of The Vampire Diaries was. Almost all of The Secret Circle episodes following the Christmas hiatus have been brilliant. But The Secret Circle has never even come close to the sensational ratings Vampire Diaries managed to attract when it started.

I just don’t understand. The cast is incredibly talented. Phoebe Tonkin has been marked as one of this year’s breakout stars and the adult cast on the show has been doing an amazing job (kudos in particular to Joe Lando and Natasha Henstridge). The writing is very good. Almost everyone who watches the show agrees that, magic aside, it provides one of the most realistic insights into what teens are like today (kudos once again to Phoebe Tonkin and her excellent portrayal of resident bad girl, Faye Chamberlain). But enough people just aren’t watching.

The latest installment of The Secret Circle provided one of the strongest episodes to date in my opinion. A guy was possessed by a demon, started staggering about like something out of The Walking Dead, was set alight by a flamethrower (sort of) and was blown into tiny pieces. That’s AWESOME!!! But if you look at the episode’s ratings, it pulled in the worst viewing numbers so far, a mere 1.33 million. Rather sad when you compare that episode 19 of season 1 of The Vampire Diaries pulled in 3.33 million. While it is, by no means, in the danger zone just yet (there are plenty of shows on The CW pulling in ratings far below The Secret Circle’s regular ratings of 1.7 million), this is a bad sign for a show that everyone seems to be predicting will be canceled, even when its ratings were close to 2 million.

For about six months, everyone who isn’t a diehard fan has been saying that they think The Secret Circle will be canceled. I just don’t understand why. What did season 1 of The Vampire Diaries have that The Secret Circle doesn’t? They’re both produced by the same people. Both casts are incredibly talented and can act their socks off. Both are based on book series by L.J. Smith. Both stories are being developed well. The only marked difference I can see is that Vampire Diaries focuses on several supernatural races, while The Secret Circle focuses on witches alone. Why do people not like witches on TV? What is the show doing wrong that is turning people away? What does The CW need to do in this next three-week hiatus to turn things around and ensure this show gets a second season? I thoroughly enjoy The Secret Circle and would really like to know why it is not getting the praise it deserves.