WGN president Matt Cherniss has explained the decision to cancel period drama Manhattan after two seasons, despite the story being far from finished.
Speaking to THR, Cherniss cited the show’s ratings and limited audience for its demise:
It’s the least pleasant part of the job, especially for a show as good as Manhattan,” he tells THR of the network’s first axing. But Cherniss felt he had done all that he could to try to generate momentum and broaden the series’ audience. After season one pulled an average of 417,000 viewers per episode, he not only moved the show to a time of year (fall) with higher viewership and out of its competitive Sunday time slot, but also waited on WGN to secure coverage in Comcast markets including Chicago and Seattle that weren’t previously available for season one. He even adjusted the series’ marketing to try to hook potential new viewers to a season he suggests was even “more phenomenal” than the first. Unfortunately, the uptick that he was after never materialized: Manhattan shed 43 percent of its audience in season two.
“As we got to mid-season of season two, reality for me had started to set in that it was going to be very difficult to bring the show back for a third season,” Cherniss says, acknowledging at that point it simply didn’t “make economic sense” to move forward.
Dan Cassidy says
Manhattan was one of the best quality shows on TV, if not THE best. The acting alone was so above what usually is on the air. I don’t watch that much TV do to that fact but waited each week to sit and watch Manhattan. Hopefully it will be picked up by another network.
russell says
net flks smale