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?
Image courtesy FOX.
loved this show
It was a great but short lived show. I think the show should have delt in past lives that dated back more than a generation or 2. These people were in the present reflecting issues from the 1980s? That doesn’t seem like a distant past issue at all. If they traced these issues back 100s of years it would have made the show alot more chilling. Like the old flashback epiodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Angel spinoff that dated back to the 18th century. That could span many past lifetimes instead of just the most recent 1.… Read more »
It was dumb. It deserved cancellation. And Kelli Giddish deserves an Elisabeth Rohm-style DNR on her career…
I aboslutely loved it!
I really liked this show, they should’ve let it run and given it a chance to catch on.
That show was awesome, they should have let it run a full season
I am really disappointed that such an interesting and well acted show as Past Life is no longer on the air. I hope that it will surface somewhere soon. We have dozens of channels and many more activities including the computer and internet competing for our time, not to mention that most women work as well and that our free time is practically nonexistant…we don’t sit all evening and watch or switch channels like we used to!People lead such busy lives now. We record or watch only our favorite shows as a rule, .People need a chance to FIND a… Read more »
I recorded the Pilot and just got around to watching it. I thought it was a great show and couldn’t wait to see more. Of course, went on line to check it’s status and see that it was cancelled. That really does suck! I thought both the lead actors were really good. I think we are so stuck on stupid “Reality” shows that an interesting show comes along and no one even bothers to watch it.
I don’t watch much tv, really hectic schedule, but i do watch computer internet programs, shows i like when I want to watch. sorely disappointed that Past lives is canceled. Medium, Past lives and Ghost whisperer were my favorites and three shows I tune into each week online. I really think powers to be shut this one down way too quick, I hope maybe another network will get the opportunity to cash in on Fox’s poor judgment. I say CBS seems the top choice to me. I love CBS, and I Love Past Lives!! What an awesome line up that… Read more »
I happen to be maybe one of the few,that DOES NOT appreciate the reality tv shows every chanel seems to put on. The few(and gettin fewer) shows I enjoy they keep canceling.It’s going to keep on till I probably won’t watch regular tv anymore.
We really think this sucks we really enjoyed the show and thought it would be another hit. It kept things going leaving you wondering and piecing together the puzzle. We really wish they would of taken a vote instead of pulling it off the air like they did leaving everyone hanging. We was looking forward to the next show after the last one aired.
what you doing
hi i know
It was a fabulous and how dare they cancel it!!!
thought Past Life was a really good show, hate to see it cancelled