PBS Decides Not to Renew Funding for ‘Edge’ : Television: The pop-culture series’ limited appeal and low ratings are cited. Its last episode will air May 13.

PBS has notified the producers of “Edge,” an innovative pop-culture series, that the network will not renew its $2-million grant for next season--a decision that probably spells extinction for the 6-month-old show.

A monthly magazine hosted by Robert Krulwich, “Edge” has been praised by TV critics as hip, engaging programming since its premiere last October. It had been seen by both PBS and WNET executives as a way to attract younger viewers to public television.

In a memo to station managers this week, PBS programming chief Jennifer Lawson said that the series, while a worthwhile experiment, had not “realized its potential.” It “had limited appeal to a general audience and was perceived as being too insider in tone and attitude,” she said.

Lawson and other PBS executives said that the ratings for “Edge” also were a factor in its cancellation. Although “Edge” was attracting the desired demographic of 18- to 49-year-olds, it was not doing so in sufficient numbers.

“When we funded the first season of ‘Edge,’ it was with the expectation that it would appeal to a broad general audience,” John Grant, vice president in charge of scheduling and programming administration for PBS, said in an interview. “The ratings were not the only factor in the decision, and we don’t usually hold programs up to a ratings criterion. But we expected that ‘Edge’ would achieve at least a normal prime-time average rating for PBS, a 2.2 or 2.3 rating.” Instead it was getting a 1--about 921,000 homes.

Harry Chancey, vice president and director of program services at WNET-TV here, which produces the series, expressed disappointment at the decision.

“I suppose ‘Edge’ might have been perceived by some people as too insider,” he said. “But to me, if you’re going to have a series that takes you into American popular culture, you want someone like Robert Krulwich as your guide, with stories like our interview with Time magazine critic Robert Hughes on the ‘fraying of America’ or the piece we did on the phenomenon of a Saturday-morning children’s TV show called ‘The Gladiators.’ ”

PBS’ Grant said that the network’s decision had been influenced by feedback from PBS stations and the fact that some of them had moved “Edge” to late-night time periods. But “Edge” producers said that the series had not had time to build an audience.

“I believe that ‘Edge’ had enormous potential, and I wish we had had more time to let the series evolve,” said Steven Weinstock, the executive producer. “The fact that the series was only on monthly made it difficult to build an audience, and we were preempted twice on several stations during pledge periods.”

Although WNET executives said that they would explore syndication or other possible avenues for “Edge,” Chancey said that it “is effectively canceled for next season on PBS. WNET cannot afford to produce it (alone).”

“Edge” never attracted corporate underwriting. Its budget was $3.5 million, with $2 million from PBS and $1.5 million from WNET and the British Broadcasting Corp., which has been running an edited version of the series.

Although “Edge” is a co-production with the British Broadcasting Corp., with an edited version of the series appearing on the BBC, Chancey said that he did not expect the BBC to be able to make up the loss of the PBS funding.