FOX Exec Discusses The Exorcist, The Last Man on Earth, and Gotham

Deadline Hollywood talked with FOX Chairman Gary Newman at the INTV conference about several of the network’s shows, and he had less than promising things to say about The Exorcist and The Last Man on Earth. For the former show, his comment was that it’s “clearly a show that’s on the bubble.” Apparently FOX hoped that they would “be able to tap into a moviegoing crowd who didn’t want to go out to the movies”, but the show’s numbers were low in its first year and slipped further this past Fall. As for The Last Man on Earth, Newman said that one was also a “bubble show” and that whether it comes back is “really going to be a matter of, as we sit down and schedule, what kind of room do we have? How do our pilots pan out?” Newman also talked about Gotham and seemed more upbeat at that show: “We asked a lot of it this year moving to Thursday nights and I thought it did a pretty good job of opening up that night for us. I feel like Gotham should have a place in our schedule.” He did qualify that by stating that is its “purely be a matter of scheduling.”

Those are definitely not encouraging words for The Exorcist and The Last Man on Earth, especially considering that network execs usually try and talk up even their poorest performing shows. I have had the former series On the Bubble most of the season and I will probably be moving that one to Cancellation Likely. The Last Man on Earth has been a bubble show for the majority of its four seasons, but I thought they would give it one more year to get it to a syndication friendly count of episodes. I am not so sure about that at this point. For Gotham, I figured its fate depended on what sort of deal its studio Warner Bros. offered to FOX, but it sounds like the network has a definite interest in it returning to the schedule. All three of these shows could definitely use a Call to Action from fans at this point which could potentially sway the network’s decision because the fate for none of them appears to be secured at this point.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is Closed for Good

BBC America’s sci fi comedy series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency was cancelled in December of last year, but fans have held out hope and carried on a raucous campaign as the show’s producers have shopped it around to other venues. But executive producer Arvind Ethan David has confirmed in the tweet below that they were unable to find a new home for the show and that it will not return for a third season.

An update for all of you working to #SaveDirkGently

— from all of us who made #DirkGently

with much, much love. #Dirktectives pic.twitter.com/FozJgKHUH4

— Arvind Ethan David (@ArvD) March 10, 2018

That show took top honors in our Fall Save My Show poll and also managed to rack up over 100K signatures from its online petition. It sure seems like one of the networks or streaming services would have had an interest in continuing a show that had that much support, but the entertainment industry has a very short attention span and is probably already looking for the next thing. Fans have started up a new petition to at least get a finale for the show, and as of this writing it is closing in on its five thousand signature goal after only two days. Stay tuned for updates on that.

Ratings Results of Interest: Timeless Has Decent Debut

On Sunday, NBC’s Timeless returned for its second season and posted a 0.8 rating based on same day viewing for the 18-49 demographic. Those are decent numbers for the Sunday 10 PM EST timeslot, but that does not give the show much leeway for slippage. Fans will definitely need to remain vigilant in support of this one on the social networks. Over on AMC, The Walking Dead slipped yet again, this time to a 2.8 rating with 6.6 million total viewers as the “Walking Dexit” carries on. Over on Starz, Ash vs. Evil Dead improved slightly to a 0.08 rating with 160K total viewers, but its numbers remain below its prior season average.

On Saturday, USA’s Falling Water improved slightly to a 0.11 rating with 335K total viewers, though those numbers are still pretty low.
On Friday, Agents of SHIELD remained low at a 0.5 rating with two million total viewers as that show’s prospects seem to have taken a downward turn at this point in its fifth season.

On Thursday, Gotham slipped to a series low 0.7 rating with 2.4 million total viewers. If those numbers continues to sink as it wraps up its fourth season, FOX may lose interest in trying to find a place for it on next year’s schedule. Also on Thursday, Freeform’s Beyond almost fell off the radar as it slipped to a 0.05 rating with 153K total viewers. That show’s future is very much in doubt at the moment. ABC’s Kevin (Probably) Saves the World had its season finale on Tuesday and improved to a 0.7 rating with 2.5 million total viewers. But that seems like too little too late to help that show much.

You can see the full ratings results at this link, and you can keep up with the latest ratings results throughout the week at the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site.