Extant is wrapping up season 1 on Wednesday night and fans are wondering whether the Halle Berry-led show will be renewed or canceled.
CBS hasn’t made an official announcement either way, but there’s several key pieces of evidence.
One is that the show has been moved around several times as the network tried to boost its ratings. The last move had its seeason finale moved from September 24 to September 17.
“The move keeps Extant away from premiere week competition,” noted Deadline.
“Also, the sci-fi drama has not fared well with a reality lead-in, leading to CBS' recent decision to put it behind a Criminal Minds rerun instead of airing it after Big Brother as originally scheduled.”
Science fictions shows have a hard time garnering viewers on television, and CBS hasn’t had many of them besides the successful Under the Dome (though that show could get canceled due to a huge drop in ratings from season 1 to season 2).
Extant started off fairly strong with 9.5 million overall viewers, including 1.6 million in the key 18-49 age demographic.
But, as with most shows, the viewership dropped over the next couple episodes, settling in at about 5.6 million overall and 1 million in the key demographic before hitting a series-low of 4.6 million (.8 million in the demographic) with the second-to-last episode of the season.
Extant creator Mickey Fisher has been giving updates on a potential season 2 renewal, starting back in early August, when he told Joshua Malina (Dr. Scott Beck) that he could return, hinting that Molly will “need more medical allies.”
Also on Twitter last month, he told a fan that “This season has a big, satisfying finale, tried to leave it all on the floor in case it’s only season.
“Big plans if not,” he added.
(CBS)
(CBS)
The news earlier this month that CBS gave a script commitment to a new medical drama starring Berry fueled rumors of an impending cancellation, but Fisher said that as far as he’s aware, there’s still a chance of renewal. “We’ve got a shot, still have my fingers crossed!” he told a fan on Twitter on September 10.
“Don’t think we'll know for another couple of weeks. But we still have a shot, as far as I know,” he added.
And on September 16, he gave another update to a questioning fan. ““Still waiting, fingers crossed,” he said. “Hopefully we find out soon, these lucky socks are at least three weeks old by now.”
Fisher, or anyone else, hasn’t given much insight into what the future plot would entail, though writer Greg Walker said before the show started airing that despite the billing of Extant as a “limited” series, they would definitely be open to another season.
“We love the idea of season two being the sequel to this,” Walker said, reported THR. “The threat we establish in season one … will continue in season two.”
