TNT announced yesterday at the TCAs that their post-apocalyptic series The Last Ship will be sailing into a fourth season next year. The news did not come as a huge surprise, but it was not a sure thing either. The ratings have been down notably for that show in its third season, but it has had some rough waters to contend with this year. Its debut was delayed by one week due to the Florida nightclub shootings (the premiere episode has terrorists storming a Vietnamese nightclub), then it had to air against Game 7 of the NBA Finals and the Game of Thrones “Battle of the Bastards” episode. In its second week, The Last Ship went up against the record-breaking GoT season finale and then its third week came over the July 4th weekend. All of that worked against the show and likely lead to higher year over year losses in viewership than other shows are currently seeing in the ratings-pocalypse era. But it has been seeing decent delayed viewing gains which matters more to the cable channels than the broadcast networks. I was pretty sure that The Last Ship would survive into a fourth season, but with the numbers on the decline and the fact that the show is costly to produce, I thought TNT might announce that as its last. They have not indicated that at this point, though, and the show received a thirteen episode order just like its second and third seasons. So for now, we can probably assume full speed ahead for this show.
This is the first of the Summer genre entries to receive a renewal announcement and we still have some Spring shows still awaiting news on their fates such as FOX’s Houdini & Doyle (cancellation likely), Chiller’s Slasher (renewal possible), and Freeform’s Stitchers (on the bubble). Keep a close eye on this site as well as the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for any breaking news on those shows and more in the coming weeks.
