The television industry’s Black Friday claimed two more sci fi TV entries as Apple TV+ has cancelled Constellation after one season and Max has decided not to move forward with a second season of Scavengers Reign. (ABC also cancelled Not Dead Yet, and you can read more about that at this link.) The cancellation by Apple TV+ comes as somewhat of a surprise seeing as that streamer has been very supportive of its originals. Constellation did not make it into the Nielsen Streaming Rankings during its first season run, but few shows from that streamer succeed in placing in that chart. And apparently, the show did not draw enough viewers on Apple TV+ compared to other originals (according to the TV Grim Reaper, it drew just 1.2 million views in its first week) on that service to justify a second season so it will become another one-and-done sci fi TV entry. There is no word at this point on whether the show will be shopped around.
The animated Scavengers Reign premiered on Max back in Fall 2023 and it also did not chart during its first season run. But it has developed some notable word-of-mouth throughout the sci fi community and it currently holds a 100% Fresh Rating and 94% Audience Score at Rotten Tomatoes. Max decided to cancel the show after one season, but Netflix must have been paying attention to the positive buzz because they picked it up and it will debut on that streamer on May 31st (the first season will also remain on Max for now). They have not committed to a second year yet, but word is that they will be paying close attention to the viewership when it starts streaming. Fans of the show should take this opportunity to make some noise on the social networks and get it trending, and they should also stage viewing parties so that Scavengers Reign enters into the Netflix charts and improves its chance of continuing to a second season.
These two announcements bring the Cancellation/Renewal Score for the current season to 14 cancelled and ending sci fi and fantasy entries (23% of shows tracked) vs. 23 renewed (38%). You can see the breakdown of the numbers and the full list of shows for the current and prior seasons at our Cancellation Watch Page.
Constellation focuses on an astronaut who returns to Earth after a disaster in space and notices that key pieces of her life seem to be missing. She then attempts to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel and recover what she has lost. It stars Noomi Rapace, James D’Arcy, Julian Looman, William Catlett, and Barbara Sukowa.
Scavengers Reign follows the survivors of a damaged interstellar cargo ship who try to find their missing crewmates while dealing with the odd ecosystem of the planet that they find themselves on which can be both hostile and helpful. The voice cast includes Sunita Mani, Wunmi Mosaku, Alia Shawkat, Bob Stephenson, and Ted Travelstead.
We are at the end of the broadcast network regular season and I expect more announcements to come over the next week or so. You can see the status of all this season’s shows at this link. And be sure to follow this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for updates and breaking news.
Be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates. And for the latest news and discussions on sci fi and fantasy television, follow r/SciFiTV
Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.
As usual, I wait before renew to watch a show. Constellation was on my list, but since it doesn’t have an end, I don’t think I’ll bother to watch. I hate when a series is left hanging.
That’s been my usual approach as well – unfortunately I had relaxed it given Apple’s quality of output and propensity to renew. Ah well. To further your point – the story, while having some interesting elements, meanders quite a bit before it starts to go anywhere. It’s definitely going to be a wasted 8 hours. Another interesting tidbit I read was that the twist in the last scene of the season (now series) finale was not pre-planned. Given the nature of that scene, what that suggests to me is that they were making things up as they went along and didn’t really have a set story they wanted to tell
Welp, 2 more shows I was watching down the drain..
Scavenger’s Reign….I really liked the Moebius inspired animation but the story was basically to string together a bunch of strange-for-the-sake-of-being-strange scenes. There was no point to the whole thing – I’d hope they’d have a plan for something more substantial in the future.
Constellation was a mixed bag with more than it’s share of unrealized potential. The story took too long to unfold and the narrative was uneven. The main actors are all competent and I’d agree that they seem solid choices on paper, but I’m not sure that as a whole they were the right mix to really engage the audience. As (slow burn) parallel universe stories go I think Counterpart was superior. Still, it was interesting and I was looking forward to it continuing – it’s a shame it won’t. I could be wrong, but this is the first Apple show since Hello Tomorrow that I don’t recall having a prominent LGB presence on screen – interestingly that one also seems to have been cancelled (on the QT) after one season. Trend? Let’s see if it happens a third time.