It was recently announced that NBC has canceled the David Duchovny drama Aquarius after two seasons.
Aquarius, set in Los Angeles in the 1960s, centered around detective Sam Hodiak (Duchovny), who was in the midst of investigating the disappearance of a girl taken by the Manson Family. The show was created by John McNamara and premiered May 28, 2015 after being picked up straight-to-series. After the series’ premiere, the entire first season was available on NBC’s website and mobile apps for four weeks. Aquarius’ second season premiered June 16, 2016.
This is what Brian Lowry, television critic for Variety, weighs in: “In making all the episodes available online after its premier, it’s either an interesting experiment, charitably speaking, or an unceremonious dumping of a project whose prospects are, admittedly, uncertain.”
For the show’s season two premiere, NBC did something interesting once again, giving it an ad-free debut Thursday, June 16. The premiere generated 2.7 million total viewers and a disappointing 0.4 rating among adults 18-49. Week two got even worse, garnering 1.7 million total viewers and a 0.4 rating once again. After its seventh episode of season two, Aquarius went on hiatus for the Olympics; it was moved to Saturdays starting Aug. 27, where it remained for the rest of the season). The season (and series) finale drew 1.2 million viewers and a 0.2 rating.
Variety reports that some of the actors were released from their contracts months ago. In the show, Gethin Anthony played a fictional Manson, with the rest of the cast including Grey Damon, Claire Holt, Ambyr Childers, Madisen Beaty, Cameron Deane, Michaela McManus, Brían F. O’Byrne and Chance Kelly.
This news of Aquarius’ cancellation perhaps means that Duchovny can allot more time to the new The X-Files content. The sci-fi series’ six-episode revival was a big hit for Fox last year. Entertainment president David Madden told reporters at TCA in August that Fox is currently “in significant talks with the three principals” – Duchovny, star Gillian Anderson and creator Chris Carter.