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‘Scream Queens’ Canceled After Two Seasons

By Alexandria Ingham
Published on: 07:02 PST, May 15, 2017

Ryan Murphy’s comedy horror for teens Scream Queens has been canceled after two seasons. FOX announced the decision while releasing the fall 2017 lineup. Most fans admit that it isn’t a surprising decision considering the viewing figures, but are understandably upset by the decision.

Like Murphy’s FX program American Horror Story (which is renewed for two more years), Scream Queens is an anthology. The story has wrapped, and there is no need to continue the tales. At least, that is the view of FOX’s co-chairman Gary Newman. According to The Hollywood Reporter, while discussing the FOX fall 2017 lineup, he confirmed that there were no plans to revisit the girls of Kappa Tau.

“Scream Queens was an anthological series. It feels as if it was a compete story. We have no plans at this point to go back there and tell more stories so we won’t be seeing Scream Queens this season.”

–Gary Newman

Scream Queens was certainly original for current TV shows when it aired in September 2015. Murphy told the story of a cliquey sorority with a dark past, run by Emma Roberts’ Chanel. All the other girls were name Chanel and were her minions, although they weren’t always loyal. The show quickly took off with a highly popular cast including Ariana Grande, Glee’s Lea Michelle, Abigail Breslin, and horror legend Jamie Lee Curtis.

While it performed well in its first season, wrapping up the storyline arguably led to fans tuning out. The sorority sisters had to move on from the creepy history of the sorority house and moved onto training to become physicians. Curtis’ Dean Cathy Munsch bought the hospital that the group of girls would train in and were joined by a couple of new faces.

The hope of the second season was to expand the viewer ratings. By moving it to a hospital setting, there was hope to expand the fanbase to men, as well as women, while expanding the age range of viewers. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out as planned and it cost the show a few fans that had loved the sorority setting of the first season.

The ratings were never as high as expected for Scream Queens Season 1, but there was a loyal fanbase. However, Season 2 only averages 1.0 among the 18-49 demographic. The whole network was riding on the show, with it ordered straight to series, assuming that fans would tune in on a weekly basis.

While it performed weaker than expected, Newman and others at FOX admitted that the live ratings only told part of the story. The show is aimed at a younger generation that doesn’t always tune in live to TV. There were high expectations for streaming and DVR ratings. Back in January 2017, there was some hope as the network was still considering a renewal.

By March the renewal looked less likely. Many of the main cast were looking at other projects, keeping their options open should they find themselves out of work. This would have meant a major change to the cast. While something like that works well for American Horror Story, it wasn’t something the Scream Queen fans were used to.

Fans aren’t entirely happy at the news, especially since The Exorcist and New Girl were renewed. Both of these shows had uncertain fates, along with Scream Queens.

While announcing that Scream Queens has been canceled after two seasons, FOX announced the fall 2017 schedule. Most shows will keep their current timeslots and nights. Lucifer is the first change of the week, with FOX moving the show to the 8/7c timeslot on a Monday. Empire will also get a new timeslot, moving to the earlier 8/7c on Wednesday night.

Lethal Weapon and Gotham are getting night changes. The DC show will move to Thursday nights at the 8/7c timeslot and Lethal Weapon to Tuesdays in that same timeslot.

There are three new shows added to the FOX fall 2017 schedule, according to TV by the Numbers. The Gifted will take the Monday night 9/8c timeslot, while The Orville runs after Gotham on a Thursday. Ghosted will air on a Sunday at 8:30/7:30c, straight after new episodes of The Simpsons.

[Featured Image by FOX]

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