For a show about past lives and reincarnation, FOX’s show has certainly had a very short lifespan. With poor ratings and reviews, the network has cancelled Past Life after three episodes.
Inspired by the book, Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose, Past Life revolves around past-life detectives who try to discover if a person’s problems and visions stem from traumatic events in a former life. The series stars Kelli Giddish, Nicholas Bishop, Ravi Patel, and Richard Schiff.
FOX had originally ordered 13 episodes of Past Life but, in mid-October, cut that to just seven installments. The official reason given was that the network had a plethora of mid-season programming but the move sure wasn’t a sign of confidence for the project.
The TV series got off to a poor start with a special showing on Tuesday, February 9th. Past Life averaged 8.32 million viewers and a 2.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Those numbers aren’t bad on their own but they do represent a loss of about 70% of the American Idol lead-in audience. What’s more, a significant number of people stopped watching before the Past Life episode had finished. An average of 9.6 million were watching the first half hour but only 7.14 million watched the second half.
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A couple days later, Past Life debuted in its regular Thursday night timeslot. Predictably, it was pummeled by the competition. It came in at fourth place in its timeslot with just 5.3 million viewers and a terrible 1.4 in the demo.
Last night’s episode was even worse. Per the overnight ratings, Past Life registered just 3.9 million viewers and a 1.1 in the 18-49 demographic. That’s particularly disappointing when you consider that most of the other networks were in repeats.
American Idol will be expanding to Thursday nights for the next three weeks and run at 8pm. Rather than give more time to a sinking ship, FOX execs have decided to pull Past Life and replace the drama with episodes of Kitchen Nightmares.
Nightmares will continue to air on Friday nights but those episodes will be repeats. On April 1st, original episodes of Bones and Fringe will take over on Thursdays. New episodes of Nightmares will then resume on Fridays.
The network says that the remaining four episodes of Past Life will surface at some point in the season but, given their overflow of successful programming, that doesn’t seem all that likely.
It would seem that the Past Life cancellation was decided either late last night or very early this morning. The “masked scheduler” tweeted, “Drove on to the lot and the Past Life poster was being torn down….hmmmmmm.”
What do you think? Was Past Life worth watching or did it deserve to be cancelled? Do you think FOX will really air the remaining four episodes?
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Image courtesy FOX.
Past life did not deserve to be canceled.
They aired this new show around American Idol and then the Olympics. Why did they not wait until it could have been given a better chance? It had some promise as a new show but the studio should have waited until at least the Olympics was over.
Very disappointed that Past Lives is being taken off. Everytime we like a new show on Fox, they take it off! Why?! Very disappointed! Should not be takingit off! I hope they atleast finish airing the remaining episodes!
@Alison exactly how was this show “a brand new idea”????? let’s see…let’s take cold case and sprinkle it with medium and then add reincarnation. yeah, a completely new idea. and those are just shows within the last few years. if you think this was a groundbreaking television show, then i feel bad for you. as i said before, i’ve been disappointed countless times over the last 30 years as really good shows got canned because they didn’t appeal to the masses. this is not one of those times. and fyi, i haven’t eaten a tv dinner since i was 6… Read more »
This is why America is full of lazy jerks who sit around eating tv dinners watching terrible television. They refuse to have to think about what they are watching… if it takes too much effort then forget it.
It was a good show, almost everything that they talked about, related to past lives, was exactly what people believe in when it comes to past lives. I thought the script was pretty great considering it was a brand ne idea
I really liked the show very out of the box idea. Kind of saddened by the fact that they cancelled it
@ person hahahaha…. nice sarcasm, five minutes into the pilot i fell asleep
OMG. SERIOUSLY? THIS WAS LIKE MY FAVORITE SHOW EVER!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY CANCELLED IT! I LOVED THIS SHOW!!!!! IT WAS AMAZING!
usually i get upset when a show gets canned without getting a real shot to succeed.
however, this is not one of those times. this show is terrible.
@uilleam
if everyone took your suggestion and not watch any new show on fox, you won’t have anything to rent as they will stop producing new shows. fox is not alone in yanking shows (although they seem to do it the quickest) without giving it a real shot to succeed.
Not surprised at all by this, considering how quickly FOX makes up it’s mind about shows. I watched it, and wasn’t impressed, but it had potential and needed time to flesh out the characters. Obviously, the petulent, impatient, ADHD-affected individual who oversees programming, had a different idea.
I probably won’t miss it, but it being canceled so quickly gives me pause to try another FOX show in the future. I probably won’t. I’m actually pretty sure I won’t. If one succeeds, I’ll just rent the DVD at the end of it’s season. That’ll teach FOX a lesson, right?
I saw the pilot at Comic Con last year and while impressed with the production values (lots of location shooting) thought it was poorly conceieved and the actors did their best with a half-baked script (studly guy with troubled past paired with hot chick pseudo cop–let the lingering glances and the cliches fly!). My gut impression was it would be a quick bust when it reached the air and I was right.
Even the article seems confused: are there 4 remaining episodes or 2?!?
@BJ: four
it wasn’t any good.
I wanted to like this show, but I’m not surprised at its being canceled. The idea was good, the story concepts interesting, but the execution was lame.