Why Nickelodeon Canceled Victorious After Three Seasons

Former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider is responsible for many of the network's biggest hits, including "The Amanda Show," "Drake & Josh," "iCarly," and "Victorious." Schneider has found himself at the center of a firestorm of controversy in the years since his shows went off the air, accused of all sorts of unsavory harassment and manipulation of the child actors that starred on his shows. For a while, though, his empire seemed untouchable, and in the early 2010s, "Victorious" ruled the airwaves like little else on tween TV.

In 2013, however, the show was canceled, and fans were left confused by the reason why. No more would they get to watch the wacky adventures of Tori Vega (Victoria Justice) and her friends at Hollywood Arts High School, the kind of performing arts school where everybody sings. The show was a hit, and then it was over. Many theories emerged online in the years since "Victorious" was canceled, including speculation about everything from a hard-partying cast to a supposed feud between Justice and co-star Ariana Grande.

We've never gotten confirmation of any of that, however, so it's likely that Nickelodeon canceled "Victorious" after three seasons because the show had simply run its course. Schneider took to X to quiet speculation, explaining (via Deadline), "Almost all Nickelodeon shows have a life of about 60 episodes ... I would love to have made more than 60 of Victorious, but that's how it usually goes. We're extremely proud of the show, and all we've accomplished."

Many fans were not happy with Dan Schneider's explanation of the show's cancellation, and they looked for clues as to what else might be going on. After all, the "Victorious" universe was getting a shakeup at the time. Ariana Grande had been granted her own spinoff, "Sam & Cat," which crossed "Victorious" over with Jennette McCurdy's character from "iCarly." This supposedly had frustrated Victoria Justice, who apparently refused to go on the "Victorious" cast tour that everyone else had agreed to.

In fact, according to Us Weekly, those rumors came from Grande herself. She apparently wrote on ask.fm — a now-defunct social media site where people could ask each other questions anonymously — that she was annoyed by speculation about the cancellation. "The only reason 'Victorious' ended is because 1 girl didn't want to do it," she said. "She chose to do a solo tour instead of a cast tour."

In 2015, however, Justice insisted that this was not correct, and that she was not to blame for her show being taken off the air. She told E! News, "I have a great relationship with all the Nickelodeon executives and my cast. And the tour not happening had nothing to do with me as well, other people didn't want to go on tour, it wasn't just because I went on a solo tour." Click here if you're curious where the cast of "Victorious" is now.

Just as Victoria Justice insisted fans shouldn't blame her for the end of "Victorious," Ariana Grande claimed on ask.fm that her spin-off "Sam & Cat" wasn't to blame, either. "If we had done a cast tour Nickelodeon would have ordered another season of 'Victorious' while 'Sam & Cat' filmed simultaneously," she insisted.

"Sam & Cat" wasn't the only thing in Grande's life that might have prevented her from continuing to appear on the Nickelodeon show that made her famous. Around that same time, she launched her solo career, which would quickly transform her into the mega-successful pop star we know and love today. It's understandable that — as hits like "Love Me Harder" and "Break Free" climbed the charts — she might not have wanted to be dying her hair red and playing the ditzy Cat Valentine on television anymore.

Unlike "Victorious" and all those other Dan Schneider shows, "Sam & Cat" did not make it to three seasons. It was canceled after only one. Co-star Jennette McCurdy later wrote in her memoir "I'm Glad My Mom Is Dead" that the set was a toxic one, writing that "the Creator" had made her drink alcohol when she was underage. When "Sam & Cat" was canceled, McCurdy says she was offered $300,000 in hush money to never speak publicly about "the Creator," which she turned down. For her part, Grande would go from Nickelodeon to "Wicked."