‘Wicked City’ Canceled After 3 Episodes By ABC

Nellie Andreeva

Updated November 14, 2015 at 9:30 AM

ABC’s Wicked City has become the first new series this fall to be yanked off the schedule. After a low-rated premiere followed by two consecutive ratings drops, most recently a 43% Week 3 dive to a 0.4 Live+Same Day rating among adults 18-49, the period thriller is being canceled. Production on the show will stop after completing Episode 8, which is currently filming. Starting next Tuesday, November 17, Shark Tank reruns will air in Wicked City‘s 10 PM slot.

The broadcast networks have been remarkably patient this fall, trimming orders for underperforming new series but keeping them on the air until their episodes run out. The list has included ABC’s Blood & Oil, NBC’s The Player and Truth Be Told and Fox’s Minority Report.

But Wicked City‘s ratings descent has been steeper than any other struggling new series — 0.9, 0.7, 0.4 — indicating a rejection by the audience of the show’s premise of a killing spree set against the backdrop of the sex, politics and popular culture of 1980s Los Angeles. The o.4 18-49 rating was the lowest number for a Big 4 original telecast this fall and was the lowest-rated program on an English-language broadcast network on Tuesday. It also is believed to be a Big 4 low for a scripted original, tying NBC’s American Odyssey and A To Z and Fox’s Mulaney, which hit that low mark last season before getting yanked.

This marks the latest casualty in ABC’s Tuesdays 10 PM time slot, joining such other recent dramas that didn’t last more than a few weeks as Lucky 7, Killer Women and Mind Games. The only scripted shows to air at least a season in the hour were medical examiner procedurals Body Of Proof and Forever.

While Wicked City and Blood & Oil have struggled, ABC also boasts one of the breakout new series this fall with drama Quantico.

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‘Wicked City’ Canceled After 3 Episodes By ABC