FOX continues to take the ax to its original horror programming. It was announced yesterday that the network has cancelled “Lucifer” after three seasons and “The Exorcist” after two seasons.
I’m shocked that FOX cancelled “Lucifer,” because it’s one of their most watched shows at the moment. While viewership has dipped since its debut season, the Satan walking on Earth series averaged 3,655,000 live viewers in season two and has averaged 3,294,000 live viewers heading into last night’s big finale. Factor in DVR viewers and “Lucifer” was seeing well over 4,000,000 viewers per episode. Something must have been going on behind-the-scenes because the show was doing well and was literally one season away from syndication, which would have been a big pay day for FOX. I wonder what happened there.
And it’s no surprise that “The Exorcist” was cancelled by FOX. Season one saw an average of 1,914,000 live viewers per episode, and season two dropped down to an average of 1,318,000 live viewers per episode. Factor in DVR viewers and “The Exorcist” was still barely scraping 2,000,000 viewers per episode. FOX already took a gamble bringing the kin series to the original movie back for a second season, and the gamble didn’t pay off at all. Fans of “The Exorcist” should be happy that the network continued with another abbreviated season in the first place, and scramble to Best Buy for the Blu-ray to add to their living room shelves.
I wonder if any new horror related shows will pop up in FOX’s line-up this Fall. Only time will tell!
