‘Dead of Summer’ canceled by Freeform; season 2 hopes shot

Apparently, Election Night is the perfect time to try and bury cancellation news — after all, Freeform is doing that tonight with “Dead of Summer.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network is canceling the teen horror series, which came from “Once Upon a Time” executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis and entered the summer with a lot of promise. Unfortunately, the show just couldn’t deliver where it mattered the most: The viewers. The ratings weren’t great, and as a result of that, the network decided to make a move. Now, they’ll have to regroup and find another big hit elsewhere.

The end of “Dead of Summer” basically means that we’ve lost the second summer series from Freeform in the past couple of weeks, as we previously saw the end of “Guilt” after just one season, as well. When you also consider that “Pretty Little Liars” and “Switched at Birth” are each ending with their upcoming batch of episodes, it’s really leaving Freeform in a sort of flux when it comes to their drama programming. At present, they can still hang their hat somewhat on the fact that they’ve got “The Fosters” and “Shadowhunters,” but there isn’t much confirmation that either one of them will be sticking around for a long time, either.

Ultimately, we don’t see the failures of this show keeping Freeform from ordering more similar shows, or working with Horowitz and Kitsis again in the future. The thing that they’ve just got to figure out in the future is how to promote their shows in a way that can get more people from the get-go. The problem with both “Dead of Summer” and “Guilt” is that they struggled almost from the get-go, so it was hard for them to have much of a chance.

What’s your reaction to this news? Share now in the comments below! (Photo: Freeform.)