Though it was a genre show with a solid pedigree, an interesting premise and strong potential, Debris had not been pulling the needed ratings during the latter half of its run and the news that it has now been formally cancelled by NBC does not come as a huge shock given that it was one of the titles left out of their announced scheduling for next season.
The series came from from Fringe creator J.H. Wyman and attempted to get a similar loyal genre following. Jonathan Tucker and Riann Steele starred as agents from the CIA and MI6 respectively who were part of a multi-agency task-force involved in the recovery of seemingly alien debris from some sort of cosmic event out in the solar system. The debris caused strange reactions in those with whom they came in contact and a race was on between countries and different faction with different ideals as to discovering the secrets of the debris and the original craft that they came from.
There were many interesting high-concept episodes, but despite initial promise and decent ratings, the show struggled to make larger sense of the deeper mythology. Tthe production team promised they had a long-game blueprint for the show’s entire story, but it seemed there were too many competing elements to hold it together as a whole for audiences. There had been initial hope that the series might be spared the axe and build on its central premise, but with so many competing shows on the schedules, it became clear in the last week or so that the show was unlikely to survive. Wyman has suggested that if the cancellation did happen they might seek other avenues to tell their larger story.
