The Tick canceled (for good), show fails to find new home
In a new series of posts today on Twitter, The Tick creator Ben Edlund confirmed that the one-time Amazon show is done for good and they were unable to find it a new home:
“After much door-knocking we have found no new home for the Tick series in this current market … #SaveTheTick & #LunaTickArmy I’m sorry we could not reward your glorious support with better news. I am so proud of the show, of the cast and crew and writers, and so warmed by the fans.”
“We will look for other opportunities to continue this story with this cast, but the current series must I’m afraid come to its end.”
The Tick joins a lineup of other recently-canceled shows, including Whiskey Cavalier and STAR, that have failed to find another venue for themselves after the previous version came to a close. (Lee Daniels has made it clear that he is still looking for a way to find closure for STAR fans.) There are some other shows that are still in the process of fighting for something — fans of AP Bio, and Santa Clarita Diet for example, are still hoping that the comedies end up getting a chance somewhere else.
So why are so few canceled shows getting another home in 2019, when there were clearly more opportunities available the year before? A lot of it simply has to do with availability and also performance. In the case of Designated Survivor, Lucifer, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine last year, you had three shows with popular global fanbases that would assemble new viewers at other services. This year, it’s been a little more challenging. First-year shows like Whiskey Cavalier haven’t proven themselves enough to prospective networks, and with both STAR and The Tick, we imagine that there wasn’t enough viewership to justify the budget to other buyers. There’s also the fact that most networks/streaming providers these days tend to prefer shows that they develop internally and when it comes to services like Netflix and Hulu in particular, they have PLENTY of projects already to call their own.
Of course, now that we’ve spelled all of this out, we do hope to see streaming services like Amazon and Netflix continue to take chances on superhero properties — while you can certainly argue that there are a ton of these shows currently out there, there have also been a lot of cancellations lately. Think in terms of the entire Marvel – Netflix universe, which is seemingly going the way of the dodo at this point — we haven’t seen any of these shows acquire a new home for themselves.
Are you disappointed that The Tick is seemingly done for good at this point? Be sure to share right now in the comments, and check back soon for some other assorted updates. (Photo: Amazon.)