After weeks of waiting, Tribune Media Company announced on Tuesday that Underground is officially canceled.
The beloved television drama in its second season showed the journey of revolutionary slaves in the 19th century strategizing to escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad.
Starring Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Aldis Hodge, Amirah Vann as Ernestine, Alano Miller, Misha Hinds and John Legend the show was the No.1 most discussed cable drama on social media each night it aired.
“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,” Peter Kern, president and CEO, Tribune Media Company said in a statement.
“This move is designed to deliver additional value for our advertising and distribution partners and offer viewers more original content across our air. 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. We are tremendously proud of this landmark series that captured the zeitgeist and made an impact on television in a way never before seen on the medium.”
Earlier this month, we reported on WGN America being acquired by the Sinclair Group in a $3.9 billion deal. Reports claimed that the new owners wanted to transition to more conservative programming, even considering hiring Fox News talent for news programming.
While the show’s creators Misha Green and Joe Pokaski are out of a deal with this network, we can only hope they’re able to make a deal with another to keep Underground‘s goodness going.