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.
yep i agree its bull!! my husband dont get into shows much but he feel in love w this show!! and soo did i!! were very upset..
I enjoyed Past Life very much. I looked forward to each new episode. I hope it comes back!!!!
I really like the show past life I think you didn’t give it a chance for people to find out about it it took it off to soon if you put it back and leave for 3 months then find out for yourself
I can not believe that they were stupid enough to cancel this show. Get rid of American Idol for god’s sake it is the only show you guys have kept and it stinks.
Once again a good show is canceled. And by the mother of cancelations: FOX! STUPID, STUPID STUPID!!!!!! All networks cancel good shows, but FOX is the worst hands down. Brothers, Do not disturb, Drive, Back to you and The War at home just to name a few. WTF?!!! I mean really WTF? FOX is hands the network that rocks and sucks at the same time with The Simpsons, Lie to me and others that are really good but they also just cancel shows. I mean if they give Gordon Ramsey not 1 but 2 shows they can at least let… Read more »
You people put on a bunch of trash and then when you get a good show, you pull the plug. I liked Past Life. You had a good cast and good material solid scripts. What is wrong with you people?? Are you that arrogant to think you know what people really want to watch. CBS made the same mistake with CSI.
Who makes the decisions at FOX?? Somebody needs to put together a serious survey and go from there. Past Life was excellent.
this is a bunch of bull!!!!!!!”PAST LIFE” is really good and yes a.i is gay there is nobody good on there they all suck!!!!!!!!!!!i am so ticked!!!!!!!!!UGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is a bunch of bull!!!!!!!this show was really good and yes a.i is gay now there is nobody good on there they all suck i am so ticked!!!!!!!!UGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am not shocked that they cancelled it, nothing was wrong with Lie to Me and they took that off too. I am so sick of American Idol, I really do think that the fifteen minutes of fame was up about five seasons ago. Don’t get me wrong, I watch Fringe which I find intriguing but it is so far fetched and it has lasted. FOX stinks with what they keep and what they don’t. I would hope to see Past Life again but if they don’t show it again what can I do.
WHat the HECK!!!!!!!! i love this show!!!!!!!!!!!!! i hate fox!!!!!!!! the first episode of past life was amazing and they were all good!!!!!!! i loved it!!!!!!! i just recored it and watched it later like i do with AMERICAN IDOL!!!!!!!!
Past Life was one of the best shows I’ve watched in years. The fact that it was canceled is so disappointing. There is a plethora of low quality reality shows with little substance and lots of gimmick. Isn’t it time to provide programming for people who actually like to think and watch meatier television than cooking, singing, dating, people trying to survive (by their own choice and desire for fame) on remote islands and wannabe models, chefs, designers, dancers, etc.? PLEASE BRING PAST LIFE BACK!
We have been very disappointed with so many programs not worth watching. When we saw the first episode of PAST LIFE, we were pleasantly surprised even Fox TV could produce some decent programs. Even though the second episode was rather disappointment, we were looking forward to more episodes. What a disappointment to find out Fox pulled the plug off the show. What an insult (or a nightmare, I should say) to replace it with the rerun of Kitchen Nightmare! Kitchen Nightmare (though we never saw more than few seconds of it) is really an ugly and violent show!! How about… Read more »
I enjoyed the show’s permiss ( The Reincarnation of Peter Proud remember that movie? ) and had hope to make it a viewing staple. Yes! I would like to see it resurrected. I did have a chance to see the first two shows and I must say the first episode was rivitting for me. If we could solve unsolved murders and bring closure for people through shows like the Cold Case and the Ghost Whisperer why not give these writers a chance to breathe life back into Past Life? It isn’t that far fetched look at Sybil and other cases… Read more »
We are very VERY disappointed that the show was cancelled!! This was a great show, and we looked forward to watching it everytime it came on. Whats the point in watching re-runs of kitchen nightmares, when PAST LIFE was new, and a wonderful show! I guess FOX knows what there viewers want to watch. (…only 3.9 million of us watched the show…) I wonder what their ratings will be on re-runs?!? Do you think they will reincarnate Past Life? I hope it comes back!!
We are also very disapointed that FOX decided to pull the show after just the three showings. It was a GOOD show by FOX for a change insted of the crap they usually produce. Was looking foward to the upcoming episodes but insted seen Kitchen Nightmares. What a bunch of bull.