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.
Jez guys, this was a very interesting and progressive show, depicting a spiritual concept of reincarnation and the results of unresolved issues being passed from one life to another. My husband and i enjoyed the show and are very disappointed that it was cancelled without being given a chance to come into its own. We are die hard fox fans and watch fox more than any other network, but they really dropped the ball on this show. My advise would be to see that the agressive person (whose poor and unjust decisionmaking caused this show to be cancelled) be reassigned… Read more »
I had some one tell about Past Life and how good it was. So I went to fancast.com and watch it I fell in love with the show. I really didn’t when the heck the show came on. Everyday I would check fancast.com to see if there were any new episodes to watch. I was getting desperate so here I am looking through google.com to see whats up. Now I find out the show is canceled. I am beyond upset fox really did a bad job of putting this show out there. Fox needs to put the show back on… Read more »
I loved this show, Im still upset that the show was cancelled 🙁
I really enjoyed ‘Past Life’ as a show but i can understand why they pulled it. Past Life was very similar to ‘Bones’ another show on fox. I personally love Bones and that’s why i liked Past Life. But, i do think past life was kinda cheesy in their portray their cop guy and woman scientist with an awkward relationship theme. I did like the show though, it just needed time to grow.
Im very dissapointed it was canceled it was a very interesting show i only got to see 2 episodes:(
I absolutely loved Past Life, and was so upset when I found out that the show was cancelled. I always looked forward to watching it. My busy schedule didn’t allow me to watch it when it aired, but I always recorded it and watched it when I had time. Fox did set it up for failure though by putting it on Thursday, it was doomed to sink considering what it was competing with. But I’m really upset with Fox, I thought this show was intriguing and made me put more faith in Fox. Maybe some other network can pick it… Read more »
I don’t think they gave the show a chance. 3 episodes is not long enough. I seen all of them and I couldn’t wait for the next to come on. Give it a chance. More than 3 episodes. WE NEED MORE…
Would have been nice to see it promo’d a bit more. Several of my friends and I have been waiting to see this show because of Richard Schiff, and now it’s over before we even found out it was on. Bad job Fox!
I found Past Life very intriguing and I think it deserves a decent chance!
It was a fresh changer of pace!
I agree that FOX didn’t give it a chance. I loved the episodes they did show. It seems that every time I like a new show it gets cancelled. Maybe another station will save it like TNT saved Southland and CBS saved Medium.
Past Life is one of the very few TV offerings I actually arranged my schedule for. What a shame to have it cancelled before it really got started.
Past Life was one of the very few series offerings that I actually arranged my schedule to watch. I really hope you bring it back! Some of the supposedly successful TV programming isn’t worth my time.
I hate fox Why would the Cancel PAST LIFE it was the Best show But it shouldn’t have been on on Thursday because American Idol Is on now and you wouldn’t be able to Watch it . I just want Past life to Be Back on Maybe even on a Friday or Saturday. Just just what I think
I have DVR and record one show while I watch another. With my husband working nights, shows that we enjoy together are watched the following morning. I was completely shocked when we sat down and NO episodes of Past Life were on our DVR. I was really hoping that American Idol or something was just taking over for a short time, but to find that one of our NEW FAV. shows was canceled made me sooooo upset. Thank God I only watch Fox for their show House. I watch CBS mostly, and this could be why. When you get into… Read more »
I am disappointed that FOX pulled the plug on Past Life. FOX set the show up for failure by scheduling in on Thursday night at 8 PM EST. This is a time slot that is owned by the reality shows on CBS and the comedies on NBC. The networks have this nasty habit of causing the deaths of popular shows by moving them to time slots that are traditionally the least watched times. I assume FOX didn’t take into account the number of people recorded it on their PVR . We did this because it conflicted with show we normally… Read more »