Timeless Fails to Find New Home After Cancellation

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Time's Up For Timeless, Which Fails to Find New Home After Cancellation

By Brian Cronin

Published Jul 3, 2018

After attempts to shop the series to another network failed, the time-traveling drama Timeless is officially canceled.

Despite an outpouring of fan support following its second cancellation by NBC, Timeless co-creator Shawn Ryan announced the acclaimed time-traveling series has no future at another network.The drama about a group of time travelers who have to stop an evil organization from altering history to take control of the present was previously canceled after Season 1, but NBC renewed it after a similar outpouring of fan support. So when the network did not automatically cancel the show following its Season 2 finale in May, fans had hope for a return.RELATED: Timeless Saved As NBC Reverses CancellationHowever, not only was the show canceled, but it appears that NBC's decision to hold off on canceling Timeless until June 22, more than a month after the Season 2 finale, left the series with few options to be picked up by any other networks.Sony Television, the producer of Timeless, is known as a tireless advocate for its series. Just last week, the company secured a series pick-up for L.A.'s Finest, the Bad Boys TV series spinoff that NBC had passed on a month earlier. So Sony clearly tried with Timeless; it just didn't work out. Ryan tweeted out the sad news to fans:

This is not necessarily the end of the show entirely, though. In a follow-up tweet, Ryan noted there is still the possibility of a two-hour movie on NBC that would wrap up the series. He ended his message by thanking fans for their support. As he notes, it was the fans (plus Sony TV) that convinced NBC to reverse its cancellation of Timeless after Season 1.

Despite an acclaimed second season, especially for its dedication for exploring the "forgotten history" of women and minorities, the ratings did not improve from Season 1, and the show is a relatively expensive one to produce. Timeless ended Season 2 on a cliffhanger, which is why there is still interest from NBC in allowing the producers to resolve the story. However, the issue of cost is a problem for a TV movie, as well.

When a fan asked Ryan if they would pursue other means of resolving the show's story, like a novel or a comic book, he said to give them a week to see if the movie can happen before they think of other avenues to tell the story of Timeless.

Created by Shawn Ryan and Eric Kripke, Timeless starred Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett and Goran ViÅ¡njiÄ‡.