Though FOX‘s bloodbath of series cancellations attracted a lot of the media coverage, ABC also had its fair-share of casualties. Designated Survivor, which featured Kiefer Sutherland as a low-level politician thrust into the Oval Office after a terrorist attack wipes out most of Congress, will not survive into a third run after its ratings dropped in its second run. Action drama Quantico will not be back for a fourth season. The series, featuring Priyanka Chopra as an FBI trainee at the institute of the title. For the first series and a half the action took place over two time-lines: one where she is the new recruit and the ‘present’ day where she is on the run after she is accused of a major terrorist bombing and claims she wants to prove her innocence, uncovering a major conspiracy. The third season of the series, running to thirteen episodes, has only just begun on ABC but the network plans to run these as planned.
Newcomer shows The Crossing – a fantastical but contemporary drama about a group of refugees arriving on the American border and claiming to be escapees from the US of the future had a lot of initial buzz but did not manage to grab solid ratings. Deception, a light drama about a magician turned detective never got a significant blip on the primetime radar and the more comedic Kevin (Probably) Saves the World was in a similar predicament. Once Upon a Time and Scandal won’t be back either, though their finales were planned well in advance.
Perhaps the least surprising casualty is The Inhumans which crashed and burned earlier in the season. The series, another collaboration between ABC and Marvel was launched with big fanfare on IMAX screens ahead of its tv broadcast but critics savaged the flimsy characters and so-so special-effects. At time of writing, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which has had something of an uptick in ratings this yea, remains ‘on the bubble’. Its ratings are not sky-high, but having connective tissue to the Marvel universe and one of the hottest movie-tickets of the year (Infinity War) certainly counts in its favour.
