Peak TV keeps cranking out new scripted shows across the broadcast networks, cable channels, and streaming services, creating an ever-more-crowded television landscape. Plenty of cancellations are following these new show arrivals, but another trend we have seen over the past few years is an advance announcement of the final season for a show. Fans certainly want their shows to stick around for as long as possible, but a planned final season is definitely preferable to an abrubt cancellation. That at least gives the creative team the chance to provide some resolution and hopefully wrap up the main storylines. Here a is a look at the shows that are currently scheduled to end in the 2019-20 season.
The 100 (CW, Ending After 7 Seasons): This show was a fan-favorite until it started killing off some of the beloved members of the main cast a few years back which resulted in some pretty vocal backlash. But the series kept going, and apparently The CW decided that the one hundred episode mark would be a good place to end a series titled The 100. That will occur during the show’s seventh season which will debut in late-Spring 2020.
3% (Netflix, Ending After 3 Seasons): This Brazilian-made post-apocalyptic drama has received some good buzz so far and will wrap up its storylines with its upcoming fourth season. Netflix tends to cap off its shows closer to the three season mark, so this one received a one-year extension. Its final season will premiere at some point in 2020.
Agents of SHIELD (ABC, Ending After 7 Seasons): This fan-favorite series has managed to survive despite perennially low ratings since its second season. The fact that it is a tie-in to the MCU films (Disney owns both Marvel and ABC) likely helped keep it going, and the creative team was originally targetting its fifth season as its ending point (having amassed enough episodes for a syndication run by that time). ABC decided to keep it around for two more seasons with its upcoming seventh year as its last. That will debut late-Spring / Early-Summer 2020.
Arrow (CW, Ending After 8 Seasons): When this series premiered back in 2012, The CW was a very different network with predominantly teen-skewing shows on its schedule. Since then, DC superheroes, and genre entries in general, have taken over the network. Arrow wraps up with its eighth season, but The Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman, and more will pick up the torch, and a possible female-led spin-off could be on the way next year. It’s final season premieres October 15th.
Dark (Netflix, Ending After 3 Seasons): This German-made series has become pretty indicative of the path of Netflix originals these days: a three-season run with the third year announced in advance as the show’s last. While fans may want more from some of these shows, at least the creative team gets the chance to resolve the storylines without leaving the viewers hanging. Its final season debuts in 2020.
Future Man (Hulu, Ending After 3 Seasons): This sci fi comedy has never been a huge hit for Hulu, but the streamer has allowed it to continue to a third season to wrap up its storylines. Its final season debuts in 2020.
The Good Place (NBC, Ending After 4 Seasons): Series creator Michael Schur had this to say about the show coming to an end: “[The Good Place] isn’t a typical show where the goal is to do it as long as we can and as many episodes as we can”. He believed that the four-season mark was the right place to end the story, and the ratings have been just good enough for NBC to allow this one to go out on its own terms. Its fourth season premiered in September.
Lucifer (Netflix, Ending After 5 Seasons): Netflix received a ton of good will–and likely picked up a fair number of new subscribers–by saving this show after FOX cancelled it. But apparently the streamer was not in it for the long-term. It received only two additional seasons, but that will at least get it to a syndication-friendly count of episodes and allow it to provide much better resolution than it would have had after FOX axed it. Its fifth season will premiere in 2020.
The Man in the High Castle (Amazon, Ending After 4 Seasons): Amazon and Hulu seem to be following a similar pattern to Netflix and are typically capping off their originals around the third or fourth season. I had heard that the creative team for The Man in the High Castle had originally envisioned at least five seasons for this show, but the advance notice on the fourth and final season at least gives them time to put together a resolution for this alternate history tale. The final season will premiere on November 15th.
>Keep up with the top stories in sci fi TV news each week with our Sci Fi TV Top 5 posts
Mr. Robot (USA, Ending After 4 Seasons): This hacker series has been a critical darling since it first debuted, but has never been a huge ratings draw for USA. The network likely kept it going because the good buzz and attention during the awards season was enough to keep the show afloat, but apparently also decided that four seasons was a good stopping point. That should still give it a binge-worthy count of episodes to go with the legacy it will leave behind. It had its fourth season premiere at the beginning of October.
The Rain (Netflix, Ending After 3 Seasons): See comments above for Dark as pretty much the same applies for this show. Its third season will premiere in 2020.
Star Wars Resistance (Disney, Ending After 2 Seasons): The fact that this series never drew much of an audience likely factors into why it is ending after only two seasons. Disney execs claimed that “this was a natural place to end the show with an epic finale” seeing as it leads into the The Rise of Skywalker which debuts in December. But if the ratings had been higher, I’m betting this one would have stuck around for another season or so. It kicked off its final season at the beginning of October.
Supernatural (CW, Ending After 15 Seasons): This show has had a long and successful run and some may say that it should have wrapped up several years back (series creator Eric Kripke originally wanted it to end after its fifth year). But with Supernatural coming to an end after fifteen seasons and 327 episodes, we will almost certainly be seeing the end of an era. It’s unlikely that many more shows, especially sci fi / fantasy entries, will enjoy a long run like this. The Walking Dead could possibly get to the fifteen season mark (though it will have a lower episode count), but the trend more recently has been to end shows after the fifth season or less (more on that in an upcoming post) and often at fifty episodes or less. Whether Supernatural lingered around longer than it should have is up for debate, but it may hold the record as the longest-running U.S. genre series for quite a while.
More from CancelledSciFi.com
Keep up with the ratings developments and the status of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Weekly Roundup posts. And join the #CancelledSciFiArmy on Twitter to bolster our ranks and help us fight for the struggling and cancelled sci fi and fantasy shows.
Check out our Sci Fi TV Schedule for debut and season finale dates and follow our Weekly Listings for a rundown of the shows airing in the current week.
Check back each Saturday for Sci Fi TV Retrospectives: A look back at cancelled, classic, forgotten, and more genre shows from the past.
