Last year, after wrapping up my scorecards for the broadcast networks, cable channels, and streaming services, I looked at the cancellations from the prior ten years to determine if sci fi shows were cancelled more often that other scripted shows on the networks. My determination was that in general sci fi shows did not get cancelled more often, despite the general perception (and you can see the full analysis at this link). This year, now that I have completed the 2022 scorecards, I am taking a look at this past season to see if the cancellation rate changed.
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Below is the full rundown of the networks for which I have produced scorecards in 2022 showing the number of new shows and new sci fi entries and the percent of each that were cancelled after one season. Overall, 23.4% of new shows were cancelled after one season, while genre entries had a higher rate of 27.7%. But there are a few factors driving that higher cancellation rate.
| Network Type | Network | New Shows | Cancelled | % | New Sci Fi | Cancelled | % |
| Broadcast | ABC | 4 | 2 | 50.0% | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Broadcast | CBS | 6 | 2 | 33.3% | 1 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Broadcast | CW | 4 | 3 | 75.0% | 3 | 3 | 100.0% |
| Broadcast | FOX | 6 | 3 | 50.0% | 1 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Broadcast | NBC | 5 | 2 | 40.0% | 1 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Cable | AMC | 2 | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Cable | Freeform | 2 | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Cable | FX | 1 | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Cable | Syfy | 3 | 2 | 66.7% | 3 | 2 | 66.7% |
| Premium Cable | HBO | 5 | 1 | 20.0% | 1 | 1 | 100.0% |
| Premium Cable | Showtime | 6 | 2 | 33.3% | 1 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Premium Cable | Starz | 5 | 0 | 0.0% | 1 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Streaming | Amazon | 17 | 3 | 17.6% | 6 | 1 | 16.7% |
| Streaming | Apple TV+ | 13 | 1 | 7.7% | 4 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Streaming | Disney+ | 6 | 0 | 0.0% | 5 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Streaming | HBO Max | 20 | 2 | 10.0% | 6 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Streaming | Hulu | 11 | 1 | 9.1% | 2 | 1 | 50.0% |
| Streaming | Netflix | 32 | 13 | 40.6% | 8 | 5 | 62.5% |
| Streaming | Paramount+ | 10 | 0 | 0.0% | 4 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Total | 158 | 37 | 23.4% | 47 | 13 | 27.7% |
One of the primary driving factors was the upcoming change in ownership at The CW which led to all of the new sci fi entries (4400, Naomi, and Tom Swift) along with several longtime shows getting cancelled in the 2021-2022 season. In the ten years before that, The CW had a cancellation rate of only 28% for new sci fi shows (lowest among the broadcast networks), but for this past season it was 100%. That was the result of a schedule purge in preparation for the new ownership and diverged notably from what we have seen in years past.
Netflix also continued it cancelling ways with five of its new sci fi shows getting the ax after one season. While that streamer started out giving most of its originals time to find an audience, the cancellation rate went on an upswing starting in the 2018-19 season. During the four seasons prior to the one that just wrapped, 50% of genre entries were cancelled after one season. Over this past year, that escalated even higher with a 63% cancellation rate.
Of course, some of the newer streamers have offset that in the overall totals with Apple TV+, Disney+, Paramount+, and HBO Max having no first season cancellations this past year. But since the broadcast networks and cable channels have been shying away from the genre (and scripted programming in general), that skews the sample down and allows the spikes from The CW and Netflix to bump up the overall cancellation rate of genre shows.
This is just one season, though, and from what I have seen the numbers fluctuate from year to year and network to network. I do believe that we are going to start seeing more cancellations overall as we approach the point when the Peak TV bubble will burst. But it remains to be seen if sci fi shows will dominate the cancellations (consider it a strong possibility because of the large budgets being pumped into those productions).
As I have been crunching the numbers historically, I have been finding that the cancellations of genre shows are not much more egregious than the overall cancellation rates across all scripted programming. There are some variances to that as the 2021-22 season proved, but the age-old belief that sci fi and fantasy get cancelled more often than others has not stood up to my analysis. Stay tuned for future posts looking back at the cancellation rates of genre shows.
You can see the Network Scorecards at this link.
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