‘Utopia’ canceled; no more brand-new start for Fox reality experiment

The moment that we saw that 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic for “Utopia” Friday night, we felt that Fox was finally going to pull the plug on their expensive and much-hyped reality TV experiment.

The cancellation is effective immediately, so there is not going to be any closure to this who view the series on TV. The live-feed component is still slated to run until tomorrow, or at least that was what was initially reported.

We know that there are plenty of people out there who will blame Fox for the cancellation of the show, and say that they should’ve done this or that to promote it better. In the end, though, we feel like they tried in the early going. The biggest problems were that they cast a bunch of crazy people, and not very many who were likable and relatable. The ratings started low, but they plunged not too long after that.

The other unfortunate thing is that the ratings for new reality competitions have been consistently dreadful ever since the launch of “The Voice” within a few years. “The Quest” and “Whodunnit” are two amazing shows that tanked in the ratings, and even many older reality shows are starting to struggle. Since its move to Fridays, “The Amazing Race” has struggled, and the only real recent success story in “MasterChef Junior” was an offshoot of a show that was already very successful.

We ultimately feel the worst for the fans, who really spent a lot of time and (for some of them) their money in order to make this experience something great.

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