Renewal timelines for canceled shows: an exploration
In light of people freaking out over SH not being renewed yet, I did some research on shows that have been canceled and renewed in the last 5 years:
The Mindy Project: canceled by Fox on May 6,2015 and picked up by Hulu on May 15, 2015. Total time allotted for renewal to be announced: 9 days.
The Expanse: canceled by SyFy on May 11, 2018 and picked up by Amazon Prime on May 26, 2018 after a continued campaign and a petition with over 100,000 signatures. Total time allotted for renewal to be announced: 15 days.
Community: canceled in 2014 by NBC on May 9, 2014, and then picked up by Yahoo on June 30th. Time allotted for renewal to be announced: almost 2 months.
The Killing: this one is all types of complicated—it was canceled and renewed by AMC in complex deals. Canceled initially in July 2012, it was renewed in November 2012. Time allotted for this renewal: 4 months. In September 2013, they canceled it again, and then Netflix picked it up in November 2013. Time allotted for renewal to be announced: 2 months.
Unforgettable: canceled by CBS, despite consistently strong live ratings, in May 13, 2012, before being renewed again by CBS on June 29, 2012. Time allotted for this renewal: a month and a half. Then, it was canceled again on October 2014, and then it was picked up again in February 2015 by A&E for a final season. Time allotted for this renewal: 4 months.
Hit The Floor: there are a lot of large gaps between the show’s seasons airing and it being renewed. Season 3 was announced as a renewal in 2014, but it did not air until January 2016. Then, VH1 announced a summer special for September 2016 that would “wrap up the storylines” that were cliffhangers in the season 3 finale. On April 27, 2017, the show was renewed and moved to BET for its future fourth season, which will be airing the summer of 2018. Time allotted for 4th season renewal to be announced: 7 months.
Sense 8: after the 2nd season aired, the show was canceled on June 1, 2017, only to be renewed, following overwhelming fan demand and a petition, for two-hour series finale was ordered on June 29, 2017. Time allotted between the cancellation and series finale order: 28 days (almost one month).
Timeless: canceled after its first season by NBC on May 10, 2017, but then it was suddenly renewed, after overwhelming fan response, on May 13, 2017, only to not be renewed for a season 3 as of June 9, 2018. Time allotted between cancellation and season 2 renewal: 3 days. However, the last episode aired on May 13, 2018 with no news, so as of today, it has been 27 days with no news on cancellation or renewal. Again, this is an exception to the norm–NBC renewed its own show after the unexpected response on a new show–they hadn’t realized the response it had until they cancelled it.
Brooklyn 99 seems to be the exception to all of this—it was canceled on May 10, 2018 and picked up on May 12, 2018. Something that explains this time crunch—Upfronts were happening the next week. NBC may have wanted to renew it for that event. I’ve also heard that NBC owned the show the entire time (well, NBC Universal), so taking it from Fox was not complex. It was simple, and therefore, time allotted for renewal to be announced: 2 days.
Bottom line: renewals take time—sometimes a few weeks, sometimes a few months. It is extremely rare that they occur in only a few days.
We have to keep going with the power hours for as long as we can. This is not going to come suddenly.
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