Alaska Daily is only taking a production break after the sixth episode until 2023, but there has been no official announcement about a second season yet.
Studios consider many different factors when they are deciding whether to cancel or renew shows, and this is often why shows get cancelled without warning.
Alaska Daily is one show that’s future is unclear for now. Even though the show is only taking a production break until 23 February 2023, the studio has not announced whether the series will be renewed for a second season yet, and this has people worried.
Why do television shows get cancelled?
It is always frustrating when a new show that you have just grown to love suddenly gets cancelled, seemingly for no good reason.
However, with the fierce competition between networks, television channels, and even new streaming services growing every day, there may be a very good reason why studios decide to cancel certain shows, while renewing others.
Although it may seem confusing when low-rated shows are renewed and popular, high-ranking shows are cancelled in the same breath, in reality, there are many factors that influence the economics of modern television.
While a highly-rated show may seem successful on the surface, if it was extremely expensive and difficult to produce, the show may not be profitable enough for the studio, even though it is so popular.
Moreover, there are also other contributing factors like ownership, licensing fees, and age that can influence this decision.
Was Alaska Daily cancelled?
The future of Alaska Daily, which is a new show from ABC, seems uncertain at this point.
The show started airing on 6 October 2022 and it follows the story of Eileen, a disgraced journalist played by Hilary Swank, who moves to Anchorage, Alaska for a new start at the city’s local newspaper.
Fans of the show first started fearing that the show was cancelled when they noticed that the most recent, sixth episode of the show titled “You Can’t Put a Price on a Life” would be the last episode for quite a while.
Fortunately, you can rest assured that the show will return for its seventh episode after the winter production break on 23 February 2023.
However, what is still unclear about the future of Alaska Daily is whether the show will be renewed for a second season.
Even though the show has been a hit with fans and Hilary Swank’s name initially drew high ratings for the show, ABC has not yet officially announced whether the show will be renewed for a second season or whether it will be cancelled.
As such, fans of the show are concerned that the declining ratings mean that it will inevitably be cancelled after just one season.
What are people saying about Alaska Daily?
Initially, people were really excited to see what the likes of Oscar winner, Hilary Swank, and two-time Academy Award winning director, Tom McCarthy, would do with a broadcast television show, but as the series continues, it is clear that although the show has a lot of potential, it still sometimes leaves fans wanting more.
Although the acting and the premise of the show is interesting enough for most viewers to continue watching every week, many viewers feel that the show is slightly heavy-handed in its explanations and its focus on Eileen as the main character, instead of the native Alaskan people that the stories are about.
How high are the show’s ratings?
From what people are saying about the show, it is evident that most viewers are still divided about whether they enjoy it or not.
Although this is understandable for any show in its first season, the show will need to prove that it can attract viewers to stay on the air.
This is reflected in the fact that the show has earned a respectable, but lower than expected, 7.4 out of 10 on IMDb and a 67 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.
Even so, the show began with quite a bang when around 3.59 million viewers tuned in from the United States alone to watch its first episode.
Why are fans concerned that the show will be cancelled before its second season?
However, along with the mixed reviews that the show has been receiving, the viewership has also started to drop and by the fifth episode, with only around 2.63 million viewers tuned in to watch, there was a 47 percent drop in the 18 to 49 age demographic.
This is why many experts have predicted that the show leans towards being cancelled, as its ratings are dropping as the show continues on and audiences have not formed a genuine connection to it just yet.