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.
I only discovered Past lives on HULU and immediately told my daughter in Japan. She went looking for another episode right after we heard Comcast bought HULU and assumed they were removing programming. There must be a way to market these series on a smaller scale to use venues like HULU to make their money so that we are not hostage to the networks. Only the stupid demographics that they target can sit in front of the TV at those hours. With a full time job and educational pursuits after hours I welcomed HULU’s carrying it. I don’t have to… Read more »
I liked the show….really wish they had not canceled it….I dont watch much tv….Fox missed an opportunity to bring a viewer back into the fold….I also know several others who were looking for this show to watch….they really should have given this one a chance…..
I loved this show and maybe it’s because I believe in reincarnation. I think it’s a shame it was canceled after 3 shows.
Come on, Fox. I enjoyed the show and was looking forward to more. Give it another chance.
I enjoyed this show and watched the three episdoes disappointed when cancelled. Hope fax airs the remaining episodes
I loved it! Too bad the good shows are always cancelled.
I really liked the show, i had to DVR it and watch it later due to my work schedule but i really like what little of it i got to watch, should not have been taken off the air!!!!
Wow…I was just trying to see when this show came on, and its been cancelled. I really enjoyed the episodes I watched. I’m extremely disappointed in this.
I thought this was a fascinating program…I guess too thoughtful for a generation of “reality-TV” fans…Disappointed in FOX. It was NEVER given a real chance.
My family and I loved this show, and were waiting for the next episode. Very disappointed this tv show was cancelled.
I for one liked “Past Life” and am very disappointed to discover that it’s been axed. Not only was it good, clean entertainment, it also ventured into a realm that many of us have pondered – the possibility that we may exist beyond ourselves. In any regard, this brings to mind other shows like “Everwood” and “Firefly” and how they were also abruptly canceled before their time, while other shows that are comprised of mindless slapstick 3rd grade plots continue on. Go figure that out. Could it be chimpanzees with magic 8 balls are really the decision makers?
I thought Past Lives was well done and incredibly interesting. I had seen a show on 60 Minutes about a little boy who had memories of a plane crash when he was a pilot in WW2.
I sincerely hope they will air the other episodes. I know a lot of people that were not aware of the show, and would like to see it.
I think they should give it a chance. I heard about it and forgot to watch when it was on. Then I went on Hulu and watched all 3 episodes. I thought it was great and very entertaining. Bring it back!!!!!
I also enjoyed the show. I found it across between Cold Case & Medium. The show was not supported by management.
I quite enjoyed this show and had hoped for a full season of exploration into past life regresssion. Please bring it back! It was a wonderful and unique show!