(Photo by: Justine Yeung/The CW)
Nicky won’t back to protect her family and community in the 2023-24 broadcast season. The CW has cancelled the Kung Fu reboot so that it won’t return for a fourth year.
A martial arts action-adventure TV show, the Kung Fu TV show stars Olivia Liang, Kheng Hua Tan, Shannon Dang, Jon Prasida, Eddie Liu, Gavin Stenhouse, Vanessa Kai, Yvonne Chapman, Tony Chung, JB Tadena, and Tzi Ma. The series revolves around Nicky Shen (Liang), a young Chinese American woman who questions her life’s trajectory and drops out of college to go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. When Nicky returns to San Francisco, she finds that her hometown is overrun with crime and corruption. The third season picks up after an earthquake and Nicky, her family, and her community attempting to rebuild in more ways than one. Nicky, still reeling from her abrupt breakup with her boyfriend Henry (Liu), and the shocking death of her nemesis-turned-ally Zhilan (Chapman), puts on a brave face as she juggles a new job teaching kung fu while fighting a growing crimewave in San Francisco.
The third season of Kung Fu averages a 0.07 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 405,000 viewers in the live+same day ratings (includes all DVR playback through 3:00 AM). Compared to season two, that’s down by 18% in the demo and down by 20% in viewership. Compared to the rest of the network’s scripted series, Kung Fu was a middle-of-the-road performer. In the live+7 day ratings, the series nearly doubled its viewership.
In days gone by, those ratings would have been enough to land the series a fourth-season renewal. However, now that The CW is primarily owned by Nexstar, the network is focusing on airing inexpensive programming — primarily unscripted and acquired series.
Management has said the goal is for the network to become profitable by 2025. and part of that plan includes cancelling most original programming. All American and Walker have been renewed, while The Winchesters and Walker: Independence have been axed.
The de facto series finale of the Kung Fu series aired in early March.
What do you think? Have you enjoyed the Kung Fu TV series on The CW? Are you disappointed this action series has been cancelled instead of renewed for a fourth season?
I am really sad that they have made the decision to cancel the series. Now I just want the season 3 dvd
CW made a big mistake by reducing the diversity of their shows by cancelling this diverse show which was one of the champions of diversity. Without diversity you can’t be on the right side of history and your show will be problematic even if it’s “good”.
It was entertaining
I only want to see more. It’s a shame!
It’s ridiculous and downright stupid to get rid of shows as good as Kung Fu. I think it’s because tv will turn into nothing but reality tv. Oh goody(extreme sarcasm)!! I guess I need to go to Roku and drop all other methods of tv. I’m really tired of liking new shows only to have them cancelled.
I liked the new version of Kung Fu because (1) it was different, and it featured Asian characters in new and original settings. (2) The cast was well chosen and every actor did a respectable job in their role. (3) It was diverse, we don’t get much diversity on TV, and Asians are under represented on TV more than any other group. I’m not Asian but it was nice to see Asian actors in roles that you don’t normally see them in. Even the bad guys were likeable to some degree. I will definitely miss it. There’s not enough quality… Read more »
They wrapped up the third season pretty well and gave a pretty good “send off” by linking the final scene to the original series. I’m disappointed, but satisfied.
I am disappointed that there will not be a 4th Kung Fu season. Ih tink the reboot went in an interesting direction from the orginial. The action and “magic” made the episodes fly by. Of course, I am not in the all important 18-49 demographic; but I bet that I have more disposable income than the average 18-21 year old. Oh well.
CW goes to the wall for me.
Nowt worth watching on it anymore.
No Kung Fu – No tears.
Mid-season breaks killed it for me.
Watched the resumption of Season 3 back-to-back.
Sad but we kind of knew it from the end of Season 3. Sad because it brought family values and friends together to fight for a cause. It also was an predominantly Asian cast which is seldom represented in these times. But as Pei Ling said to Nicky “The End is just the beginning”
The season finale WAS a series finale by all appearances, so I’m pretty sure the Kung Fu producers read the writing on the wall after last season’s CW bloodbath, and knew there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in my back yard they would get another renewal. Unlike all the shows that got axed last season, Kung Fu was able to wrap all their storylines up and end with Nicky walking off into the sunset – which actually brought back memories of the original Kung Fu, for those of us who can remember it. So this is exactly what I expected, and… Read more »
Another awesome show canceled! We need to have closure on this show and several others that have been canceled. CW , you are making a big mistake and ruining the channel by taking all the good shows away!!!!
It ended with closure she was going to go on and go to different places like David Carradine did In the original.
The CW used to be my favorite station the new owners don’t care about the loyal fans who were involved with all the good shows. They just canceled all of them
I agree with your sentiment. The CW used to be my favorite channel, but now they’ve canceled or ended every original show I watched except one.
The network was sold because it loses money because it isn’t in every market. Unless the show is an import (like Family Law), it appears they want an average rating of 0.1 or over a half million viewers. If that is correct, Superman and Lois and All American Homecoming will get renewed and Gotham Nights will get canceled. That will leave the network with 4 original scripted shows for next season.
I love this show. It is different from everything else on TV. Please don’t give up on the people.
And another great show cancelled by The CW! Hopefully another network will pick up all the great shows The CW is canceling. This is not the way to show a “profit” CW!
No this is a great family show as well shows diversity.