Underground season 3 renewal in danger via WGN America purchase

While Underground may be a critical hit for WGN America, it’s starting to look like it is about to be an unfortunate casualty of the Peak TV era.

Will the show be canceled? While nothing is confirmed at present, the purchase of Tribune Media by Sinclair Broadcast Group heavily suggests that the new ownership will be looking to reevaluate everything. Speaking per Variety, CEO Chris Ripley made it clear that there are going to be different priorities for the network that put all of its scripted programming in a little more jeopardy:

“The ratings WGN America (delivers) doesn’t justify the type of spending they do on the original programming side … The channel could be run much more profitably on a fraction of what they spend on programming.”

There have already been some signs of trouble with WGN America in the scripted space, given the recent end of Salem and also the decision related to Outsiders. We do understand that original scripted programming is a costly venture, and at times the ratings it draws aren’t that much stronger than the ratings you tend to see from shows in syndication. For a prime example of that, just look at the ratings for shows like Family Guy, Seinfeld, and The Big Bang Theory on cable — these perform better than many other original shows.

Ultimately, WGN America wouldn’t even be the first cable network this year to abandon scripted programming if this is what they decide to do. Earlier this year, we saw A&E back off of the venture ever since Bates Motel ended its run on the network. The unfortunate reality is that there are so many scripted shows on the air right now that sooner or later, some networks were going to fall by the wayside and their programs forgotten. Underground is a great show, and the good news is that the aforementioned Variety report suggests that the studio Sony is already beginning a search for a new home in the event that it gets canceled. We do think that this an occasion in which a potentially-canceled show has a chance of coming back elsewhere, mostly because it won’t be ending because of its own doing by any means.

Do you want to see Underground season 3 happen? Sound off now in the comments below! We’ll have further updates as they come out. (Photo: WGN America.)