 Firefly premiered in the U.S. on the Fox network on September 20 , 2002 . By mid @-@ December , Firefly had averaged 4 @.@ 7 million viewers per episode and was 98th in Nielsen ratings . It was canceled after eleven of the fourteen produced episodes were aired . Despite the relatively short life span of the series , it received strong sales when it was released on DVD and has large fan support campaigns . It won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2003 for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series . TV Guide ranked the series at No. 5 on their 2013 list of 60 shows that were " Cancelled Too Soon " . 
