Why Taken season 3 isn’t happening — and the series was canceled

Taken season 2

For everyone out there hoping for a Taken season 3 following the finale on NBC Saturday night, we come bearing bad news — it’s not happening. The Clive Standen series was formally canceled earlier this year — the moment that it was moved to Saturdays was pretty much the nail in the show’s coffin.

So why is this happening? It all comes down to the ratings. The season 2 premiere started off sluggish in its new timeslot on Friday nights, and it didn’t get better from there. Taken, unfortunately, is an example of one of those shows that may have benefited more from a great lead-in during its first season than anyone first thought.

Could things have been different if Taken had originally premiered its second season in the fall? Maybe, and that was originally the plan for last year. It was after the fact the series got delayed until 2019, and that meant that it couldn’t capture in on the momentum of the start of the season. Personally, though, we don’t think it would’ve made much of a difference. It was in competition against a dominant show like Hawaii Five-0 and the two airing opposite each other was probably a bad move in the end. They would’ve been better off being separate, at least for the sake of Taken.

At this point, it’s also pretty clear that the series isn’t going to land elsewhere, either. One of the things that we would advise at this point is to look for the cast on some other shows soon. Standen will be returning to Vikings for at least an arc on the second half of season 5. Meanwhile, there’s always a good chance that we could see Jessica Camacho again on The Flash as Gypsy. Over the coming months, we’re sure that some more news is going to come out about some of these actors ultimately landing some other parts, as well.

What do you think: Are you bummed that there won’t be a Taken season 3 over on NBC? Be sure to share in the comments.

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