‘Red Band Society’ not officially canceled, but future in serious doubt

While tonight would typically be a chance to enjoy a new episode of “Red Band Society” without thinking too much about the show’s future, there is a reason right now why that is pretty close to impossible.

Sources confirm that next month, the show will halt production after its initial 13-episode run. While there were some additional scripts that were considered, they will not be made … at least for now. The episode next week will serve as the midseason finale, and the final three episodes will (hopefully) air at some point in the future.

The truth of the matter is that the ratings for the show were not good from the beginning, and they really have not improved. It did not quite matter that we had Octavia Spencer in all of her greatness on the show, or a series that did improve in quality as time went on. Fox is just in the middle of a terrible commercial slump, and it started with “Utopia” and continued to other shows like “Mulaney.” So far, “Gotham” is really the only significant hit that the network has on the air.

“Red Band Society” ultimately could still be renewed for a second season, but it feels very unlikely. The only change that it really has is that the ratings for Fox the rest of the year struggle even more than what they had in the fall, and their crop of new pilots all turn out very badly. Given that they would probably still want to give one of these a shot before ordering a show that is already struggling, we would start to think about an obituary or two for this show.

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