Why was Prodigal Son cancelled? Details explored in depth

Prodigal Son is a show about a serial killer dad, and I mean, it was also a show you could not take your eyes off of.

When the show was cancelled in 2021, only after 2 seasons, fans were left heartbroken.

However, why was Prodigal Son cancelled? The answer to this comes down to taking a look at numbers, timing, and network calls. Even though the show was loved by fans, the network had it cancelled after 2 seasons without completing the story fans had waited to see.

Let's find out the reasons and talk about what really pushed Fox to pull the plug on the show.

Ratings for Prodigal Son fell even when the story was getting better

If you were a Prodigal Son fan, you probably noticed how the show improved during its run for season 2. The characters were far more interesting, the cases got even darker than before, and the tension between Malcolm and Martin just kept getting messier and messier in the best possible way.

Sadly, TV does not run on fan tweets (even though we so wish it could). TV grows on viewership numbers and other factors.

Across 2 seasons of the show, Prodigal Son struggled to hold steady ratings on TV. The first season did have the buzz, but the fanbase slowly slipped away instead of growing. Fox gave the show room to breathe, hoping people would climb on the watch train, but that did not happen.

By the time we ended up getting a season 2, the numbers dipped even more which raised red flags inside FX and it became hard to justify spending more money on a show that wasn't pulling enough fans.

Behind the scenes, a few insiders also talked about how the decision to cancel was difficult to make. The creative team had ideas for what would come next, and the cliffhanger ending showed the story wasn't really meant to stop just there. But once the ratings failed, the show became a risky investment.

Why a season 3 rescue never worked out

When Fox cancelled Prodigal Son, hope did not completely vanish. Fans rallied online, cast members shared their shocks too, and the energy spent around saving the show did feel powerful and forceful.

Warner Bros Television even tried to sell the series to other networks, hoping someone else might save the show but alas, this failed and it is easy to connect the dots as to why this could be.

Weak viewership makes networks nervous, especially when the cost for production is high and the future audience growth feels uncertain. Streaming success alone wasn't enough to take on that risk.

The timing is another reason why the show was not renewed for a Season 3 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and this made planning the show even more difficult.

Some fans pointed to shows like Lucifer as proof that revivals can work. The difference is speed. The saving of Lucifer happened soon, while Prodigal Son was in limbo for far too long. As months turned into years, the chance of a season 3 comeback faded, even though the fan love never fully vanished.

Prodigal Son was cancelled because the live ratings never reached the level Fox needed, even with strong fan support and creative speed. Attempts to find a new streaming platform to acquire rights to the show to save it for another season did not succeed either and the renewal got even harder to pull off.

Even today, the show is a fan-favorite and some of them still hope and wish that they could've gotten a Season 3 to wrap up the story properly.

Trending

Stay tuned to Soap Central for more updates on TV shows, films, pop culture & more.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback