Fox cancelled their new reality TV series Sunday after only two months on-air. The cancellation is effective immediately, meaning the last aired episode was the series finale.
The series aimed to put a group of 13 strangers on an isolated camp and document their activities for an entire year as they attempt to build a new society, with a live-stream feed online that viewers can tune into 24-hours a day.
The show premiered in early September with a disappointing 4.6 million viewers. By Episode 2, that number fell 46 percent to 2.5 million viewers. The series was originally announced as a year-long show and was intended to eventually develop to air one night a week.
This cancellation comes a week after Fox Television Group chairmen and CEOs Dana Walden and Gary Newman announced that they were limiting the show’s episodes from airing on Tuesday and Friday to only Friday nights.
Walden made a statement regarding the show shortly after it’s disappointing launch saying that she would exercise “patience” since she and Newman both enjoyed the show.
“It’s a really interesting twist on a franchise that feels familiar enough to viewers that I think over time it has the great opportunity that scripted shows do not have of introducing new pioneers, bringing in different points of view, activating new viewers to come in and check out the world,” Walden told The Hollywood Reporter in early September, noting at that time: “We’re definitely going to exhibit patience. What exactly that means, it’s hard to tell. I’d say that as long as we’re feeling creatively satisfied with the show, we’re going to do everything in our power to give it an opportunity to thrive and grow.”
That patience ran out this week and the live-streaming feeds will “fade to black” Sunday night, according to TVLine.com. A Fox insider told TVLine that it’s “likely” viewers will get to see the show’s participants react to the cancellation before the network pulls the plug.
