10 Shows That Will Probably Be Canceled, Even If They Don't Know It Yet (2015 Edition)
Come May, the broadcast networks will have to make some big decisions as they finalize their lineups for the 2015-2016 TV season. Said decisions will inevitably mean canceling some shows and renewing others based on a number of different factors. But many current bubble shows are already making that task easy, even if they don't know it yet. Below, I've listed 10 shows that will almost certainly get the axe this spring, even though they're trying their darndest. Say your goodbyes now; it will make their cancellations easier to take.
This is just a theory, but last season, some folks believed that NBC was looking to renew either About a Boy or Community and chose About a Boy. So even though Community eventually earned a happy ending from Yahoo!, I'm still a little sore over About a Boy edging out Community. As such, I'm also a little delighted to be putting About a Boy on this list. The ratings for the show's most recent episode solidified its cancellation; it was the lowest-rated show on broadcast for the evening, below even Supernatural and a Countdown to the Oscars special that aired on ABC... five days before the Oscars! And it gets worse: In January, NBC cut About a Boy's episode order from 22 to 20, and in February, the network yanked the show from its schedule earlier than planned, leading even series star Minnie Driver to believe that it's dead.
Judging by the ratings for this new NBC spy drama (its disappointing premiere earned a lackluster 1.1 rating among adults), you'll have to trust me when I tell you that Allegiance is a show that exists. NBC clearly hoped that The Blacklist would be able to boost a new show once Red Reddington made his move to Thursdays, but its currently got its own problems to worry about, having posted series worst and series worster ratings, respectively, in its second and third outings on the day after Humpday. In short, the James Spader fans who remain aren't sticking around for Allegiance. Meanwhile, How to Get Away With Murder is getting away with murdering the show, with the most recent episode of the Viola Davis drama putting up 8.86 million viewers and a 2.9 rating against Allegiance's 3.32 million viewers and 0.9 rating. Throw in the bad reviews and a lack of star power (but I still love you, Hope Davis), and this sucker is [Russian for dead]. Watch FX's The Americans instead.
This year's Rake will end up just like last year's Rake, the actual one-and-done Rake. The Rainn Wilson-led Backstrom is being absolutely obliterated on Thursday nights, where it has to wage war against Scandal, CBS comedies, and now The Blacklist in one of television's most brutal scheduling battles. The show's lead-in, the fading American Idol, didn't offer much help out of the gate, and its most recent episode went sub-1.0 in the ratings. And it looks even worse compared to its network sibling Empire, which is currently the sole argument for the survival of network television. In that context, Backstrom is essentially the poster child for those who believe network television is dead. But the bottom line is that a grumpy detective solving crimes in the rain isn't as compelling as Empire's glamorous drip-droppiness and sexy sassiness. GEE, WHO WOULDA THUNK? It's time to give up on the dream of creating another House, Fox.
No one expects a Friday-night show to do well in the overnight ratings (Friday is also Get Crunk Day!) so the 0.9s and 0.8s that Constantine posted throughout its first season—as early as its second episode and in nine of its 13 total episodes—weren't that much of a surprise, especially after NBC announced that it wouldn't be granting a full-season pickup and then moved the show from 10pm to 8pm after its winter break. However, just like Dracula before it, Constantine suffered the extreme disadvantage of existing in the shadow of Grimm, which has continued to defy Friday-night expectations by drawing respectable ratings. It's like, "Hey Constantine, why can't you be more like your older brother?" "Screw you, dad! I'm my own person!" "Don't you talk to me like that, son!" "I'm outta here!" "Fine! We disown you!" *door slam* Fans have already set up a campaign to try to save Constantine, but if save-the-show campaigns actually worked, Firefly would be in Season 13 right now. And NBC chief Bob Greenblatt didn't exactly express confidence in the series at the recent Television Critics Association winter press tour. Let's hope series star Matt Ryan makes a quick return to television, though.
The ABC drama about a man who can't die has already gotten lucky once, avoiding its own death (sorry, I had to) when ABC surprisingly ordered a full season in November, after seven episodes had aired. Forever's ratings haven't changed that much since they leveled out between 4 and 5 million viewers after Episode 5, and the show was already finishing last in its Tuesday-at-10pm timeslot when ABC picked it up for a full season.
I was positive the series would be canceled a long time ago—and yes, I was very wrong—but now I'm even more positive, like super-positive, that it won't live to see Season 2! Why? Because Tuesday nights at 10pm are ripe for the taking thanks to mediocre performer Chicago Fire on NBC and a declining (in ratings, not quality) Person of Interest on CBS; those two shows are currently winning their hour, and bringing back Forever, which just hit a series low two weeks ago with a 0.9 rating in the 18-to-49 demo would only mean more of the same for ABC. The prudent choice would be to start over and roll the dice with something new (perhaps a hip-hop drama with vampires?), but no matter what, the network should thank Forever for being a solid placeholder series, unlike other its recent Tuesday-at-10pm shows (Mind Games, Killer Women, and Lucky 7.
NEXT: Galavant, Marry Me, Stalker, and more
PREVIOUSLY: About a Boy, Constantine, Forever, and more
Hey, Galavant was a fun experiment while it lasted, and at least I still have the theme song stuck in my head (I'm getting it surgically removed this weekend). But ABC didn't have high hopes for the series in the first place, slapping it with a "limited series" label and using it as a seat-filler between chunks of Once Upon a Time. Here's a little tip for figuring out whether a show has any support from its network: If the show in question airs back-to-back episodes over the course of only four weeks, it's not really expected to succeed. Sure, Galavant was in a tough spot, airing opposite special events like playoff football and the Golden Globes, but for ABC, that was the point. Why waste programming it cared when it was up against such daunting behemoths? Don't let the inconclusive ending fool you; Galavant won't be asked for an encore.
Since returning from the short break it took for the holidays, Marry Me's largest audience has topped out at a dinky 2.26 million viewers (or roughly one seventh of what NCIS: New Orleans pulls in), and that's only because NCIS: New Orleans and New Girl were in reruns that day. The comedy is mired in a pit full of 0.8 ratings, which even The CW says "Pssshhhhh!" to nowadays. We always need more Casey Wilson on our television screens, but at this point the rumored Happy Endings comeback would have a better chance of keeping her there than Marry Me does. She and series creator David Caspe should take their talents to cable, where they won't be bleeped.
It's probably cheating to list a show that's already been pulled from the schedule, but I'll take any opportunity to pad my cancellation-predicting stats. You can blame CBS for its inclusion, because the network is currently insisting that the show isn't canceled. It's lying, of course, and here's the proof: In The McCarthys' last day on the air, CBS's night went a little something like this: 17.25 million viewers and a 4.5 rating in the adult demo at 8pm for The Big Bang Theory), 11.78 million viewers and a 2.8 rating at 8:30pm for Mom, 9.75 million viewers and a 2.3 rating at 9pm for Two and a Half Men, and 7.11 million viewers and a 1.6 rating at 9:30pm for The McCarthys. It doesn't take a mathemagician to pull those numbers out of a hat and figure out that The McCarthys isn't a live rabbit, it's an old banana peel with some used Kleenex stuck to it. The show is still beating Fox's Backstrom, but this is CBS we're talking about; the network is a veritable factory of multi-camera comedies, and another one will swoop in to replace The McCarthys without anyone even noticing.
ABC was stoked when Resurrection debuted in March 2014 with some eye-popping numbers: 13.9 million viewers and a 3.8 rating among adults 18 to 49. And its first season did pretty well, dipping below a 2.0 rating only once during the show's eight-episode run and making it a lock for Season 2. But Resurrection dried up faster than a zombie in a beef jerky machine during its sophomore year, finishing with 3.73 million viewers and a sorry 1.0 rating. The finale did show a slight increase from the 0.8 rating the show had recorded in its previous two weeks, but the improvement came too late to give ABC a solid reason to renew.
Americans can't get enough of helpless damsels in distress being pursued by crazed perverts and psychopaths (what a country!), but that won't save Stalker. While I could easily argue that Stalker never should've made it to air in the first place and TV.com could hold heated weekly debates on that very topic, it's pretty obvious that the series is likely on its way out. In mid-January, CBS renewed three of its four new fall dramas—NCIS: New Orleans, Scorpion, and Madam Secretary—leaving Stalker as the odd show out. That decision probably had something to do with the fact that the Dylan McDermott and Maggie Q procedural averages far fewer viewers per episode than its fellow freshmen series, and has performed worse than the fading CSI did in the same time period last year. If new midseason series CSI: Cyber and Battle Creek totally tank (which they won't), Stalker has a slim chance at surviving; otherwise, it's a goner. But let's be honest: Stalker was never meant to run for several seasons, its only purpose was to introduce Maggie Q and McDermott so they could become Hollywood's most fearsome power couple.
A few extra notes:
– I didn't include The Mysteries of Laura or State of Affairs on this list because trying to predict NBC's reasoning is a fool's errand and star power still speaks volumes on broadcast TV.
– I can't put into words how badly I wanted to include Beauty and the Beast for the second year in a row, but The CW took away that chance (and I would've been wrong anyway).
– Mulaney is so obviously canceled that it would be redundant to name it here.
– I was almost tempted to include Sleepy Hollow, but I think Fox is such a disaster right now that it needs to keep a few familiar series in its lineup.
– I'm not ready to make a call on Agent Carter, even though its ratings aren't that great.
– The Mindy Project deserves to be canceled—its ratings simply aren't that great—but critics like it and Fox has bigger problems to deal with.
What shows do YOU think will be canceled this spring?
