Freeform announced yesterday that their supernatural horror series Dead of Summer has been cancelled after one season. This is one that I completely missed last Summer as the Too-Much-TV era makes it harder and harder to keep up with all the shows on the air. It came from Once Upon A Time veterans Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and centered on a Summer camp where an ancient evil is released. Interestingly, the show averaged a 0.2 rating with around half a million total viewers per episode which is higher than the numbers Stitchers saw last Spring, but that latter series was renewed for a third season. Perhaps Dead of Summer was more expensive to produce and/or did not have much in the way of international financing backing it. It also may not have had the same level of “stickiness” in the social networks which allegedly helped Stitchers get its third season renewal. In any case, Dead of Summer becomes yet another Peak TV one-season-and-done entry as the smaller cable nets are having more difficulty attracting viewers to their original programming.
We are still waiting to hear word on Slasher (Chiller), Wayward Pines (FOX), and Between (Netflix), so be sure to keep an eye on this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for news on these as well as any updates on the Fall shows currently airing.
I watched the premiere of that one. It was mostly just teen show and slasher cliches, and it didn’t seem to have any spark of originality. I’d say the cancellation was probably merited, unless it got dramatically better later in the season.