The Wizard of Oz-inspired fantasy series Emerald City has been cancelled after only one season on NBC.
Despite its ambitious start, Emerald City‘s journey along the yellow brick road ends after one short season, with Variety confirming that NBC has pulled the plug due to a disappointing ratings performance.
Emerald City is the second freshman series to get the boot from the network following Powerless‘ cancellation. It also appears to be part of a growing trend of networks cancelling promising series way too soon — see also the recent cancellations of Sweet/Vicious and Pitch — being far too reliant on traditional Nielsen ratings and failing to market its products to the right audience.
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Emerald City was NBC’s bid for an immersive fantasy series to rival MTV’s Shannara Chronicles and HBO’s Game of Thrones, attempting to break the format of network TV and attract another type of fandom. The network has clearly already abandoned that experiment however, having instead chosen to pick up a Smash-style musical series and a military drama for the 2017-18 season.
Starring Adria Arjona as an adult Dorothy with a K9 police dog, Emerald City took the classic Frank M. Baum tale in a darker direction, propelling us into a world of magical warfare, political intrigue, wicked witches. Its cast also counted Vincent D’Onofrio, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ana Ularu, Gerran Howell, Jordan Loughran, and Mido Hamada.
We’re sad to see this ambitious, diverse and evocative fantasy series gone too soon.