‘Underground’ Canceled As WGN America Joins Networks Abandoning Scripted Series

It seems that after two seasons, WGN America has told producers of it’s slave-era drama Underground that they’ll have to find a new home. WGN had previously announced the cancellation of their other drama series, Outsiders with a similar rationale. Regardless of the ratings, the new network owners, Tribune Media, have set out to find a new market. Tribune CRO and president Peter Kern released a statement:

As WGN America evolves and broadens the scope and scale of its portfolio of series, we recently announced that resources will be reallocated to a new strategy to increase our relevance within the rapidly changing television landscape. Despite ‘Underground’ being a terrific and important series, it no longer fits with our new direction and we have reached the difficult decision not to renew it for a third season.

The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television and is currently shopping it around and series stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Aisha Hinds have both expressed optimism that the series won’t end here. Last year series co-creator Misha Green had said they’d mapped the series out with a full five-season arc.

https://twitter.com/MishaGreen/status/730515209836584960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Ftvseriesfinale.com%2Ftv-show%2Funderground-five-seasons-planned-wgn-series%2F

WGN joins A&E who last month announced that with the completion of five seasons of Bates Motel, they would be shuttering their scripted series efforts for the foreseeable future. In A&E’s case they’ve had limited success with their other recent series – Those Who Kill, The Returned, and Unforgettable all barely managing a single season each.