While sex still sells on premium cable, Showtime has cancelled its Masters of Sex TV show after four seasons. The drama series followed the lives of sex researchers William Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan), whose work helped to kick off the sexual revolution.
It seems the season four finale, “The Eyes of God,” is now also the Masters of Sex TV series finale. That episode debuted on Showtime, on November 13th. According to Deadline, the cabler has declined to comment on the Masters of Sex cancellation.
Masters of Sex TV Series Cancelled After Four Seasons on Showtime
Masters of Sex season four brought Masters and Johnson into the 1970s, where they struggled to save their medical practice. The couple finally married in the finale. Reporter Nellie Andreeva says, “I hear Showtime brass felt that was a fitting conclusion to the duo’s complicated story, and decided not to go forward with another season.”
While premium cable TV series do not rely on advertising dollars, they do rely on paid subscribers. In other words, premium cable channels still care about audience size. That is why, even for the Showtimes and HBOs of the world, ratings are still a good indication of whether a TV show will be cancelled or renewed.
Masters of Sex Cancellation Post-Mortem: A Look at the Ratings
Taking the ratings into consideration, it is no surprise that Masters of Sex has been cancelled. In its fourth and final season, the series earned an average of 0.12 in the 18 to 49 year old viewer demographic and drew an average total audience of 453,000 viewers. Meanwhile, the third season of Masters of Sex averaged a 0.13 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 595,000 viewers.
Compare those numbers to the first two years. The second season averaged a 0.26 rating in the demo and 800,000 viewers. Masters of Sex season one averaged a 0.4 demo rating with 1.07 million viewers.
Because Masters of Sex has been on a consistently steep downward slide over four seasons, the cancellation makes sense.
What do you think? Are you a fan of the Masters of Sex TV show? Should Showtime have cancelled or renewed it for a fifth season?
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