Every TV Show Canceled In 2018 So Far
It's a tough world out there in TV Land. For every megahit, there's another new show that fails to find an audience, or an existing show that just keeps on shedding viewers throughout its run. Sometimes, this is a reflection on a series' quality, with unoriginal or incomprehensible shows failing to grab viewers. However, in the era of peak TV, that isn't always the case; often, great TV goes under the radar simply due to the sheer amount of content viewers are inundated with today.
The boom in TV networks, streamers, and other content providers has led to ballooning numbers of scripted series, with 487 shows airing in 2017, according to FX chief John Landgraf. With numbers this big, it makes sense that so many shows don't survive, but that doesn't make it any less heartbreaking for fans. With that in mind, here's a look at all the shows that have been canceled so far in 2018.
Ash vs. Evil Dead
Looks like the evil dead are getting off scot free. Starz canceled Bruce Campbell's Ash vs. Evil Dead in April of 2018, allowing the story to wrap up with its season three finale. The series, a follow-up to the Evil Dead films, brought back Bruce Campell as the titular demon slayer, alongside Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo, Jill Marie Jones, Michelle Hurd, Ted Raimi, Pepi Sonuga, Arielle Carver-O'Neill, and Lucy Lawless.
Campbell seemed willing to go on playing Ash forever, calling it "the role of a lifetime," but Starz pulled the plug on the series as they tried to refine their slate of scripted originals. Although the series launched with 437,000 same-day viewers, its ratings fell over its run, with the most recent episode before its cancellation was announced pulling in just 175,000 viewers. Although those numbers probably jumped when DVR numbers were added in, that's still a disappointing figure for an established property with a big name star.
The Exorcist
The Exorcist likely won't be able to come back from the dead after being canceled by Fox. The supernatural drama, a sequel to the 1973 film of the same name, starred Alfonso Herrera as Father Thomas Ortega who, along with Ben Daniels' Marcus Keane, went out into the country searching for evil. The show's second and final season featured the pair heading to a group home for at-risk foster children, where a child was targeted by a powerful force that put the priests on a collision course with hell.
The Exorcist was well-received by critics, but it never did big numbers in the ratings. The show's second season averaged just 1.9 million viewers and a 0.6 rating in the key 18 to 49 demo. Although many fans were upset over the show's cancellation, showrunner Jeremy Slater said that they shouldn't blame Fox for their decision. "I know it's easy to get angry at Fox, but the reality is that we were the lowest-rated drama on any network and they still brought us back for a second season, because they loved the show," Slater wrote on Twitter. "There are no bad guys in this scenario."
Inhumans
A Marvel pedigree may seem like enough to earn a show an automatic second season, but that wasn't the case for the superhero giant's ill-reviewed ABC series Inhumans. The show, which starred Anson Mount as Black Bolt, the silent king of the intergalactic Attilan, was canceled after just one season, despite massive promotion and a release of its first two episodes in IMAX theaters.
The problem with Inhumans seems to have come down to the show's quality. The series was trashed by critics, earning just a 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Problems included the show's cheap look, its generic storylines, and the lackluster performances of some of its cast members, who also included Serinda Swan as Black Bolt's wife Medusa and Iwan Rheon as his villainous brother Maximus. Despite the tough critical reception, some fans did enjoy the series, and they created a petition to try and bring it back. Unfortunately, roughly 5,000 signatures weren't enough to earn a season two.
Last Man on Earth
The Last Man on Earth had its last season on Earth in 2018. The show starred Will Forte as the lone survivor of a cataclysmic event — or at least he seemed to be alone when the show started, anyway. Over the course of the series' four-season run, Forte's Phil Tandy discovered that he was far from alone on the planet, with Kristen Schaal, January Jones, Mel Rodriguez, Cleopatra Coleman, and Mary Steenburgen also showing up in regular roles.
Forte, who also created the show, ended the series' fourth season on a cliffhanger, which was a huge disappointment for fans when it wound up being the show's last. The series was the casualty of a Fox comedy blitz, with the network canceling most of its single-camera shows in favor of more multicams. Last Man on Earth was a critical favorite, earning five Emmys throughout its run including two nods for Outstanding Lead Actor for Forte, but that wasn't enough to keep the show on the air.
Lucifer
The devil was officially out at Fox in 2018, with the network canceling their DC Comics drama Lucifer after three seasons. The show featured Tom Ellis as the titular fallen angel, who retires from Hell and moves to Los Angeles, where he works double duty as a nightclub owner and a consultant for the Los Angeles Police Department. Lauren German and Tricia Helfer also starred in the series.
Although the show averaged just 4.1 million viewers and a 1.1 rating in the key 18 to 49 demo in its third and final season, it was still beloved by fans, who immediately started pushing for producers Warner Bros. Television to find a new home for the drama. They're reportedly planning to shop the series elsewhere, with Hulu, who has SVOD rights to the drama, an apparent possibility. They're also said to be looking at other streaming services and premium cable networks, and potentially, DC's upcoming digital streaming service.
The Mick
Kaitlin Olson has enjoyed a long run on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but her luck wasn't quite as good for her Fox sitcom The Mick, which was canceled after just two seasons. The show featured Olson as Mickey Molng, an irresponsible woman who winds up getting saddled with taking care of her sister's rich, spoiled children. Sofia Black-D'Elia, Thomas Barbusca, Jack Stanton, Carla Jimenez, and Scott MacArthur also starred in the series.
Although The Mick received a mostly positive critical reception, it failed to build on the mild buzz for its first season in its second outing, averaging 3.1 million viewers and a 1.2 rating in the key demo. Although this may have been enough to earn the series a renewal in a normal year, Fox found themselves with limited space for programming next fall thanks to their acquisition of the NFL's Thursday Night Football, which will take up more than 30 hours of space on the network's schedule. With time tight, The Mick wasn't doing well enough to make the cut.
Mozart in the Jungle
Amazon left the jungle behind in 2018, canceling their musical drama Mozart in the Jungle after four seasons. The show, based on the 2005 memoir Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music by oboist Blair Tindall, followed Gael Garcia Bernal as Rodrigo de Souza, the new conductor of the New York Symphony. Lola Kirke, Malcolm McDowell, and Bernadette Peters also starred in the series, which was executive produced by Roman Coppola.
The show was critically acclaimed, winning Golden Globes for Best TV Series – Comedy or Musical and Best Actor for Bernal in 2016 and earning the same two nominations the next year. The show also holds two Emmy nominations for Cinematography and Production Design and two wins, both for Sound Mixing. Its cancellation comes as Amazon tries to shift its programming towards bigger dramas with more international appeal, looking for a global hit like HBO's Game of Thrones. Mozart in the Jungle was the first casualty of the quest under new programming chief Jennifer Salke.
Once Upon a Time
Once Upon a Time lost a lot of viewers over its run, but the show still managed to stay popular enough with a loyal group of fans to earn an unexpected seventh season renewal. However, the season also came with a massive creative overhaul, with much of the principal cast replaced by newcomers. Despite the attempt at rebooting the series, the show still struggled in the ratings, and the seventh season became the show's last.
Although ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey had initially said that she was "cautiously optimistic" about the potential of the show getting an eighth season, she eventually announced that the seventh season would be the show's last, calling it a "bittersweet" goodbye. With the show averaging 2.5 million viewers and a 0.6 rating in the key demo for its final season, down 20 percent total and 40 percent in the demo from its sixth season, the writing was clearly on the wall for this fantasy series.
The Path
It seemed like Hulu landed something big when they picked up the cult drama The Path, starring Aaron Paul, fresh off an Emmy-winning run on AMC's Breaking Bad, and Golden Globe nominee Michelle Monaghan. Despite the series' impressive pedigree, it only lasted three low-rated seasons and didn't receive the critical love that the streamer was likely hoping for.
The Path featured Paul and Monaghan as a husband-wife pair who are members of the Meyerist Movement, a cult-like religion. However, after a trip abroad, Eddie begins to question the movement. Hulu doesn't release ratings, so it's unclear what the show was pulling in with regards to viewership, but the series never received the critical acclaim that its premise and stars seemed to suggest. While it holds a 79 percent overall rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the fact that it never received any major awards nominations (coupled with the stars' expensive paychecks) was probably the nail in the coffin.
Shades of Blue
Jennifer Lopez may have earned an early season three renewal for her NBC reality series World of Dance, but it doesn't seem like her star power was enough to keep her cop drama Shades of Blue on the air. The show, which featured Lopez as Harlee Santos, a single mother and NYPD detective recruited to work on the FBI's anti-corruption task force, was canceled after airing three seasons.
The series' 10-episode third season, debuting in the summer of 2018, will serve as its last, with Lopez, who also serves as an executive producer, saying that there was a "poetic three-season arc" to the way Harlee's story ends. Ray Liotta, Drea de Matteo, Dayo Okeniyi, Vincent Laresca, Hampton Fluker, and Sarah Jeffery also starred in Shades of Blue, which was averaging seven million viewers and a 1.4 rating in the key demo for its second season. Although this was enough to win its time slot in every key demographic, it seems that keeping a star as pricey as Lopez wasn't worth it for the network.
Taken
Even being based on a well-recognized film series isn't enough to ensure a TV show's success anymore. Such was the case for the NBC drama Taken, a prequel to the Liam Neeson film series of the same name. The show, which starred Clive Standen as a younger version of Neeson's Bryan Mills, was canceled after airing two seasons. The series followed Mills during his days as a former Green Beret and member of an elite team of covert operatives tasked with conducting dangerous rescue missions around the world.
After a lackluster critical reception in its first season, the show experienced a major cast overhaul and brought on Greg Plageman as a new showrunner for season two, but it wasn't enough. The show was NBC's lowest-rated drama in the key 18 to 49 demo, earning an average of 2.8 million total weekly viewers and a 0.4 rating. This is a big drop from its season one numbers, when the show was bringing in 5.1 million total weekly viewers and a 1.0 rating. Mills may have a very special set of skills, but bringing in viewers apparently isn't one of them.
Roseanne
ABC's Roseanne reboot was met with controversy right out of the gate thanks to star Roseanne Barr's politics, and her brazen personality wound up getting the successful sitcom pulled off the air. ABC decided to rescind the second season order for the revival (and eleventh overall for the show) after Barr stirred up contention by tweeting that former Barack Obama White House advisor Valerie Jarrett was what happened when the "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby." The tweet, which has since been deleted, was widely condemned on social media, and even pushed consulting producer Wanda Sykes to announce that she was quitting the show.
"Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show," said Channing Dungey, the president of ABC Entertainment, in a statement announcing that the show would not be returning. Trade publications described the decision as "a stunning move," considering the fact that the series has been a huge ratings performer for the network. The No. 1 scripted show broadcast television, beating out juggernauts This Is Us and The Big Bang Theory and averaging 19.3 million viewers and a 5.5 rating in the key demo, it spurred a spate of multicamera comedy pilots, with other networks looking to capitalize on the show's success. Ultimately, those numbers were too good for ABC to let go of completely: a Roseanne-free Roseanne spinoff, dubbed The Conners, was announced in late June.
Timeless
Timeless came back from the dead once, but that's probably not a trick the show will be able to pull off again. After reversing their decision to cancel the time-traveling series after one season, NBC ultimately decided that it will come to an end after two. The show, which starred Abigail Spencer, Malcolm Barrett, and Matt Lanter as a history professor, scientist, and soldier tasked with traveling through time and preventing the alteration of history, struggled in the ratings from the get-go, and thanks to an expensive budget due to its constant changes in costumes and settings, NBC decided to pull the plug after its first season.
However, the network wound up reversing that decision just a few days later after fan outcry from viewers who dubbed themselves Clockblockers. Although those fans were just as active on social media calling for a renewal after season two's cliffhanger ending, NBC ultimately canceled the show again thanks to continued lackluster ratings. It's possible that the network could bring the show back for a two-hour movie to help bring the series to an end, but ultimately, it looks like Timeless fans won't be able to turn back the clock this time.
Everything else
With hundreds of scripted originals on the air, dozens of shows go off the air each year. Here's a brief rundown of all the other shows that were canceled in 2018.
Alex, Inc. (ABC, one season)
The Brave (NBC, one season)
Chance (Hulu, two seasons)
Code Black (CBS, three seasons)
The Crossing (ABC, one season)
Damnation (USA Network, one season)
Deception (ABC, one season)
Designated Survivor (ABC, two seasons)
Dice (Showtime, two seasons)
Disjointed (Netflix, one season)
Everything Sucks (Netflix, one season)
Falling Water (USA, two seasons)
Famous in Love (Freeform, two seasons)
Ghosted (Fox, one season)
Great News (NBC, two seasons)
Hap and Leonard (Sundance TV, three seasons)
Here and Now (HBO, one season)
I Love Dick (Amazon, one season)
Imposters (Bravo, two seasons)
Jean-Claude Van Johnson (Amazon, one season)
Kevin Can Wait (CBS, two seasons)
Kevin (Probably) Saves the World (ABC, one season)
L.A. to Vegas (Fox, one season)
Lady Dynamite (Netflix, two seasons)
The Last Ship (TNT, five seasons)
The Librarians (TNT, four seasons)
Life Sentence (The CW, one season)
Living Biblically (CBS, one season)
The Mayor (ABC, one season)
Me, Myself, and I (CBS, one season)
The Middle (ABC, ending with a ninth and final season)
New Girl (Fox, ending with a seventh and final season)
Nobodies (TV Land, two seasons)
One Mississippi (Amazon, two seasons)
The Originals (The CW, ended with a fifth and final season)
People of Earth (TBS, two seasons)
Quantico (ABC, three seasons)
Rise (NBC, one season)
Scandal (ABC, ended with a seventh and final season)
Scorpion (CBS, four seasons)
Seven Seconds (Netflix, one season)
Shadowhunters (Freeform, three seasons)
Shut Eye (Hulu, two seasons)
Six (History, two seasons)
Stuck in the Middle (Disney Channel, three seasons)
Superior Donuts (CBS, two seasons)
Ten Days in the Valley (ABC, one season)
Valor (The CW, one season)
Versailles (BBC, three seasons)
Wisdom of the Crowd (CBS, one season)
9JKL (CBS, one season)