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.
Please do not cancel this show i really like it and i would watch it on tuesday and when it moved to thursdays night i would be watching it .i would like to see it be back on T.V.
I am extremely disappointed that this show has been pulled. The concept challenged the entrenched, very limited views of reality that are out there, and offered an intellectually stimulating puzzle that the viewer could try to unravel as the plot moved along. The stories are well-written and compete well in my view with the better murder mystery shows on both sides of the Atlantic. I did expect some kind of negative reaction to this show from some hard-headed believers in single lifetimes, but apparently this axing is simply down to ratings. The show represents such a revolutionary concept that it… Read more »
This is my message for Fox. I won’t spend my time telling Fox how stupid they are, I will tell the advertisers that are presented on Fox how stupid Fox is. Fox is ONLY about the immediate dollar gained and could care less about good programming.
Im mad. I absolutley LOVED past life. why the heck did you guys get rid of it. idiots.
I really enjoyed this show and have been looking for it. I just found this and was upset that it was cancled!!! To the Powers that Be Please return it to tv soon.
I’m NOT happy about it being cancelled!
That is unfortunate. I actually enjoy this show. Like others who enjoy this show say, “you didn’t even give it a chance”. I would hope there is an alternative way to watch this show. This makes me loath Kitchen Nightmares. I don’t even watch that show and I can’t stand it.
This was a great show, and as we all know, as soon as we find a good one it gets pulled. Freaking pissed me off. Who wants to watch the crap you replaced it with? I won’t be.
great show.i think the people in america need to read Dr.Brian Weiss`s book many lives,masters ……….ps.i have seen a few of my past lives
Wow! Ya know, I really liked Past Life and I am 18 will be 19 in a couple of months. Lets see I am currently attending college going into the medical field and still managed to find the time to fit this TV show into my life while being active with sports and working out. The series wanted to draw in audiences of 18-49 age range, well there you go, an 18 year old is telling you that you messed up. And plus Kitchen wars for real, can you say dumb! Wait that is whoever didn’t take into consideration that… Read more »
I am also 18 and I agree!! Past Life needs to be given another shot!
I really believe Past Life would have done much better if not for a new Survivor AND the Winter Olympics. Not sure who was in charge of programming, but I’m sure that would explain why half the audience left during the Tuesday night episode and may have even tuned back in on Thursday night and those that watched Tuesday night didn’t tune in on Thursday night. I just don’t think it was given the chance it needed. SHAME ON FOX.
I still have more to add. Did you morans ever think that this show started against a New Survivor and the Olympics? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that some people would be watching those and then start to watch Past Life. Why didn’t you start a different time slot. You I believe have disappointed a lot of people. Hope you are happy in playing GOD. We won’t be watching much on your channel anymore. Thank GOD for cable.
My husband and I are very disappointed that you cancelled Past Life. You didn’t even give it a chance. We were enjoying the show and from what I saw of the replacement Nightmares well I think it would give you NIGHTMARES. We will not be watching that show. I don’t understand the stupid people in your industry that you make all the choices you are very foolish. What are you going to cancel next?
This show is like the original Star Trek series. It was believed to be a complete failure and no one in television world thought that it would ever be anything. Star Trek was advanced in many ways. Past Life is also advanced. Star Trek took a few shows to capture the audience and it was an audience that still follows it today. That could easily be Past Life. I would suggest incorporating more real life stories into the show. What is really funny is that who ever is cancelling the show is also repeating past life actions. I wounder what… Read more »
A television company finally shows something that gives a better picture of what our life is about and sure enough, they kill it. Bimbos, *****, drunks, dopers, gang bangers, murders, bad marriages, horrible examples of men and women, power, false beauty, big money, crappy news programs that don’t report what is really happening, and senseless game shows, that is what television is. I am sure that some big money who was doing drugs while having a drink while playing with some **** some place where his wife couldn’t see him and all of this will be discovered by another tabloid… Read more »