ABC Family was officially rebranded as Freeform at the beginning of this year, and since then the network has debuted a handful of original series in both the scripted and unscripted realms. Unfortunately, today brought bad news for one of those remaining shows, as the murder mystery drama Guilt has been cancelled after just one season, without a Season 2 to follow. That's going to be a really rough blow to those invested in the twisty happenings.
Without going heavy into spoilers for anyone who has yet to make it through the ten episodes of Guilt's first season, it's safe to say the creative team was of the mindset that a second round of episodes would be in the cards. While one major element of the mystery was wrapped up, there were more reveals made, as well as a new murder, and the cliffhanger aspect is not one that lends itself well to losing the chance to continue the story in the future. And even though the season concluded in August, the Guilt social media engine has been going ridiculously strong over the past few days trying to sway people into watching the show on the Freeform app. Bad timing.
The cancellation, as reported by Deadline, perhaps isn't all that much of a shock, considering the show's ratings weren't the most enviable on cable. The season/series finale actually brought in the biggest live audience since the premiere, but that was only 400,000 people, down from the premiere's 490,000 viewers. That's right on par with the campy horror Dead of Summer, which has yet to get word on a second season, but far below other 2016 debut Shadowhunters, which had the advantage of a built-in audience from the Mortal Instruments fanbase.
Guilt was created by Nichole Millard and Kathryn Price, both of whom also penned the feature The Game Plan, and it put its talented cast in the middle of an investigation surrounding the murder of an American student abroad in London, with her roommate (Daisy Head) getting the bulk of the suspicions. It was rather like the Amanda Knox court case, and the drama spared few salacious situations in getting to the bottom of things.
Freeform is going to need to build up its scripted library fairly quickly. Right now, the network's two veteran shows Pretty Little Liars and Switched at Birth are both awaiting their final seasons, with the latter making fans wait well over a year to get a fifth seasons conclusion. Thankfully, Freeform has started developing some interesting shows to complement other returning series like Stitchers. For instance, a new Marvel series based on Cloak & Dagger is on the way, as is a pilot about angry mermaids, because why not?
Will you guys miss Guilt?
It's unfortunate that Guilt was cancelled. However, if you are looking to add the series to your dvd or blu-ray collection, you can check that out here.
