Can you really cancel something that was already kinda a miniseries in the first place and that didn't appear to have much potential for a sequel anyway?
Apparently, “Yes.”
News spread on Friday (July 3) morning that NBC will not renew “A.D. The Bible Continues” for what wouldn't exactly be a second season, since “A.D.” was already a sequel-of-sorts to History's “The Bible.”
This was already a bit of a foregone conclusion, but following this week's formal cancellation for “American Odyssey,” that closes the book on all in-limbo (and not-really-in-limbo-at-all) shows for the 2014-2015 TV season.
NBC has actually been doing a lot of housework over the past two weeks, severing ties with the not-yet-officially-cancelled “Hannibal” and renewing “Aquarius,” a decision that looks even more bizarre after the summer drama did a woeful 0.4 rating among adults 18-49 on Thursday, exactly the woeful number that “American Odyssey” never fell below on Sunday nights.
Because both “American Odyssey” and “A.D. The Bible Continues” premiered on Sundays in late spring, neither drama had completed its run when NBC made its renewal/cancellation decisions associated with May upfronts, prompting the network to say that the jury was still out on both shows, even though nobody believed it.
The relative failure of “The Bible Continues” has to leave producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey wondering if it was a mistake to move this potential burgeoning franchise away from History after “The Bible” was a huge cable success. Certainly there was ample early Christianity still to cover, so it remains to be seen if the producers could get a cable network to tell more of this story with different audience expectations (and a different budget).
At least we'll always be able to make fun of that blurbalicious Deadline review that compared the show to “'House Of Cards' meets 'Game Of Thrones.'”
And at least the HitFix BubbleWatch 2015 gallery is complete.