The River: Cancelled; No Season Two on ABC

The search is truly over for the Magus crew. ABC has cancelled The River, their mid-season thriller series, after just one season of eight episodes.

The River follows the search for Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood), an adventurer, TV host, father and husband who disappeared while on an expedition deep in the uncharted waters of the Amazon River. Others in the cast include Joe Anderson, Leslie Hope, Eloise Mumford, Paul Blackthorne, Thomas Kretschmann, Daniel Zacapa, Shaun Parkes, and Paulina Gaitan.

The TV series had an okay premiere, registering a 2.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 8.35 million viewers. Unfortunately later episodes didn’t do nearly as well and towards the end of its short season it went as low as a 1.3 in the demo with 4.09 million.

Will Netflix save The River? Yes, I think so. I hope so. I doubt it. No way. View Results  Loading ...

On our ABC Ratings Report Card, which measures the relative success of shows on the network, The River has a “D” grade and is one of the lowest-rated shows on ABC this season. It’s no surprise that the network has cancelled it.

While you won’t see a second season ABC, there’s still a glimmer of hope that Netflix could pick it up. The movie rental/streaming service had preliminary discussions with ABC Studios about possibly picking up the show if ABC ended up canning it.

There’s been no word since the initial story but, now that the show’s been cancelled, perhaps we will. ABC holds their upfront presentation on Tuesday so we may learn some more information at that time.

What do you think? Are you surprised that The River has been cancelled? Do you think Netflix should pick it up for a second season?