Cancellation/renewal season is getting into swing on the major television networks, and it’s been a bloodbath so far. ABC has been chopping series right and left, and now Fox is taking the axe to its own lineup in earnest. Fox has officially given the cancellation notice to one of Fall 2015’s most ambitious new series, as sci-fi thriller Minority Report will not be getting a Season 2.
Minority Report had a recipe for success thanks to the name recognition of the 2002 Minority Report film and an aggressive marketing campaign. Still, the cancellation doesn’t come as a huge shock. The show has been off the air since the end of November 2015, and there hasn’t been much buzz about its future in the months since. Frankly, Minority Report has been off my radar for so long that I forgot that its cancellation hadn't already been reported by Deadline.
The pilot for Minority Report showed promise, and the mythology surrounding the precogs was unlike anything else on the small screen. Meagan Good was a solid lead, and the effects were pretty great for television. Unfortunately, the show never clicked with audiences, and the ratings for the series premiere were so disappointing that Minority Report was a flop right off the bat. The original episode count of thirteen was cut down to ten after only three episodes. Hopefully, any fans of Minority Report saw the signs ahead of time and aren’t too shocked by the cancellation.
Sadly, Minority Report is a show that might have worked on a different network. The numbers that weren’t enough for Fox to continue funding the series could have been great for a niche cable network. There’s no indication that Fox is planning on shopping the show around to other channels or pitching it to a streaming service like Hulu to continue, so we’ll only be able to wonder for now if it might have had a chance somewhere other than Fox.
Fox has not been kind to its freshman ventures, and the comedies in particular have suffered. Instead of sparing one to focus on the other, the network went ahead and cancelled both Grandfathered and Grinder, and animated series Bordertown has produced its last episode as well. Fox slashed its sci-fi even further than just Minority Report by cancelling the Frankenstein-ish Second Chance as well. With The X-Files done for now, sci-fi fans will have to look somewhere other than Fox for entertainment.
To see what other shows got the axe in the recent exodus, check out our list of the biggest shows that just got cancelled. Don’t forget to take a look at our rundown of what had been cancelled and what has been renewed to see what you can plan on catching in the 2016–2017 TV season, and see our schedule of summer TV premiere dates for when you can expect your warm-weather favorites back on the air.
