The Village, The Enemy Within, Abby’s canceled by NBC after one season
The network officially has canceled The Enemy Within, The Village, and then also Abby’s after a single season on the air for each, and while we can’t say that we’re shocked, it did feel like one of the three shows could get some sort of last-minute reprieve for another season.
Of the three, Abby’s was the easiest of the decisions given that its ratings for most of the first season were far from great. It was a cool idea, as most of the comedy was actually filmed both outdoors and in front of an audience. There haven’t been many shows that did quite what it did and it boasted a great cast. Unless he lands a new role, this also means that Neil Flynn, for the first time in many years, is going to have a year where he is not a star of some sort of primetime network show. He went right from Scrubs to The Middle to then this.
As for The Village, we get the sense that this is the cancellation that will be the most upsetting to a lot of people out there, given that it had the potential to be somewhat similar to This Is Us — a show that yanked at your heartstrings featuring a great cast. It failed to make a huge splash in the ratings, but it had developed a loyal following who seemed interested in sticking with it.
With The Enemy Within, we actually felt like this was the show with the highest odds of sticking around given the presence of big names Jennifer Carpenter and Morris Chestnut — it also felt like it could’ve been a perfect compliment to The Blacklist, at least in terms of its tone and overall feel.
Could any of these shows be saved?
It’s highly unlikely. In general, it’s a little rare these days for shows to be saved after airing just one season elsewhere since they don’t necessarily have some sort of crazy-huge fan following. If you look at Designated Survivor and Lucifer, those two shows each had multiple seasons and a number of episodes in the can before Lucifer stepped in. None of these series had anywhere near as big of a profile or as much of a backing. We’d be game for more of any of them, especially since shows take sometimes more than a season to really find themselves.
Unfortunately, we just don’t think that there is enough momentum for any network/streaming service to take the risk on a canceled midseason show, one there may not be too much investment in. There haven’t been any revivals at all so far this year, though we know that Lee Daniels is working to find STAR a new home after it ended at Fox earlier this year. It’s probably the show with the best chance when you look at its primetime ratings.
Of these canceled shows, which one are you the saddest about? Share below. (Photo: NBC.)