‘Hannibal’ season 4 renewal hopes now lie with Amazon, cable, other streaming providers

Today, the news was sadly reported that “Hannibal” has been officially canceled by NBC after three seasons. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but we would be lying if we were to suddenly act surprised by the announcement. The ratings for the show were for the most part well below par, and when you consider that, there really was not much of a reason for the network to want to get it another go-around.

So is there still hope for the show elsewhere? This is something we hinted at in our first article about the cancellation, and this is an era where quality programming often finds a way to live on. Just look at “Community” getting to go all the way to season 6, or “Longmire” heading to Netflix. Even “Unfrogettable” landed a new home at A&E without the same sort of devoted fan following. There is always a little bit of hope, and no one has said that the show is officially done just yet. With that in mind, let’s look at a few potential suitors who may have an interest here in feasting on some more episodes.

Amazon Prime – To us, the leading candidate. There are no content restrictions, they already own the streaming rights, and this show has everything that a binge-watcher would love. It may also be better suited for that format in some ways since it will be easier to keep track of all events when you watch at your own leisure.

Starz – Fuller is already adapting “American Gods” for the network, so why not at least consider it? It’s unusual for a network show to move to premium cable, but this has the quality behind it to make it work.

AMC – Given that they renewed “Halt and Catch Fire” (which has ratings far worse than “Hannibal’s”), could they be willing to take it on? With “Mad Men” and “Hell on Wheels” ending they could use more consistent hits.

Yahoo Screen – This to us may be one of the last suitors that is on our mind right now. They seem to be really happy with “Community,” and the reason why there may be no season 7 is contractual more than anything else. If they want to keep buzz going, wouldn’t this be the perfect fit?

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