Well, Whiskey Cavalier got close to a cancellation reversal but it did not last. Keep reading for why this is probably The End, with no hope for a save from the likes of Netflix and company.
Two weeks ago, on Mother's Day weekend, ABC cancelled the Scott Foley and Lauren Cohan dramedy. However, the Season 1 finale, "Czech Mate," aired after that and saw a big ratings jump. The May 22 finale also ended on a major cliffhanger. There was enough interest that reports came out that the network was reconsidering the cancellation. There was hope! Alas, showrunner David Hemingson updated on May 24 that The Powers That Be had decided, once again, to pass on Whiskey Cavalier Season 2:
Love that poster. But I guess that's our answer to the Whiskey Cavalier theme song: "I need to know now, know now, can you love me again?" It's "no."
Scott Foley not only starred in the show as FBI Special Agent Will Chase, aka Whiskey Cavalier, he's also a producer on the show. He and Marika Dominczyk, who played Tina on Whiskey Cavalier, posted a tearful message after ABC's cancellation. They too briefly had hope when it looked like ABC was reconsidering the cancellation. Foley returned to Twitter when the bad news came down (again):
Always good to have hope, though, even though this goodbye does seem pretty final. Vir Das, who played CIA agent Jai Datta, also gave a shout-out to the loyal fans:
Josh Hopkins played FBI Special Agent Ray Prince, and I like to think this is a very Ray-like reaction to the update:
There's the silver lining!
Deadline shared some background on the new decision. A final call had to be made quickly, they noted, since Scott Foley and Lauren Cohan had been courted for other projects. (The Walking Dead Season 10, perhaps, to bring back Cohen's Maggie?)
This past Wednesday's season -- now series -- finale gave Whiskey Cavalier its best same-day numbers since its Wednesday premeire, earning a 0.7 rating in adults 18-49, which was almost double its recent results, and 3.8 million viewers.
Show producer Warner Bros. TV pitched Whiskey Cavalier to other platforms, with Deadline adding that the big-budget globe-trotting show was important for the studio for international sales appeal and because it already made a big investment in the Prague-shot series. However, ABC or another broadcast network was always the best case scenario for WBTV, rather than a streamer. Shows like Lucifer and Designated Survivor went to Netflix, but Netflix already had at least partial international distribution rights for those titles already. That was not the case for Whiskey Cavalier. So it sounds like it came down to cost, and it sounds unlikely that Netflix will save this show like so many others.
The one additional bright side is that the cliffhanger won't completely stay a cliffhanger. We won't get to see what happens next, but executive producer Bill Lawrence said he and showrunner David Hemingson would reveal what would've happened in Whiskey Cavalier Season 2. Scott Foley has already teased that he wanted Will and Frankie to take their "will they/won't they" and transition it to "on again/off again" to show the evolution of that pairing.
Sadly, shows are still getting cancelled all over the place. Keep up with those updates, and hang on to our season finale schedule to see if there are any shows you like that are still gearing up toward a 2019 ending. Also, check out the summer 2019 schedule for anything worth watching on network or streaming TV.
