ABC finally made the majority of its renewal and cancellation decisions this evening. Only a few of the series from the past season are being cancelled though. The list includes freshman series Cristela and Forever, second year drama Resurrection and low rated reality competition The Taste.
The cancellations for Cristela and Forever comes after both series manage to earn back-nine episode orders despite weak initial ratings. Forever was a much stronger performer once DVR playback numbers were figured in while Cristela did a reasonable job holding onto the Last Man Standing audience on Friday.
What seems to be the true thing that led to these cancellations is ABC not having complete ownership of the shows - with Forever set up at Warner Bros. Television and Cristela at 20th Century Fox Television. Coupling that with the low ratings is ultimately what did the two shows in.
Meanwhile, Resurrection was a breakout hit for ABC when it debuted in March 2014, delivering one of the strongest launches for a new series on the network in the past few years. Those big initial numbers guaranteed it be back for a second year. However, the ratings fell off every week in its first season and that trend only continued in the fall, when the numbers fell below a 1.0 rating multiple times.
It was miraculous that The Taste aired for three seasons despite being low-rated for all of them. It's cancellation is far from a surprise.
