It turns out people weren’t really that interested in a dark and gritty re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz.
Deadline reports that NBC has canceled Emerald City after one season. This marks the network’s first official series cancellation before the upfronts. The series followed an older Dorothy Gale as she is transported by tornado to the Land of Oz, a world of violence and dark magic where Dorothy is set to fulfill a prophecy.
The series had a troubled production, originally picked up for a 10-episode straight-to-series order from Matthew Arnold, eventually giving the show over to Josh Friedman before killing the project. In April 2015, NBC gave the project over to showrunner David Schulner (Do No Harm, The Event) with the show eventually making it to air. The series struggled to find its footing from the get-go, averaging 0.7 adults in the 18-49 demo and 3 million viewers in Live+same day.
Emerald City stars Adria Arjona, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ana Ularu, Mido Hamada, Gerran Howell, Jordan Loughran, Joely Richardson and Vincent D’Onofrio. Schulner and Shaun Cassidy executive produce, and Tarsem Singh (The Fall, Mirror Mirror, Immortals) directed all ten episodes.