Prime Video has canceled Night Sky, a sci-fi drama starring JK Simmons and Sissy Spacek, after just one season.
Deadline (opens in new tab) reports that the show, which released all eight episodes of its first season on May 20, will not have a second season. The report claims that the show’s considerable production costs and failure to garner a large enough audience led Prime Video executives to shut down the project.
Night Sky told the story of Irene of Spacek and Franklin of Simmons, a couple who discovered many years before that there is a chamber buried in their backyard, which inexplicably leads to a strange, deserted planet. They’ve carefully guarded their secret ever since, but when Jude de Chai Hanson, a charismatic young man, insinuates himself into their lives, it’s that much harder to keep the secret.
The show’s cancellation so soon after its premiere might come as a surprise, especially since the initial reactions to Night Sky were quite positive.
Kiah McKirnan, Julieta Zylberberg, Rocío Hernández and Adam Bartley starred alongside Simmons, Spacek and Hanson, with Daniel C. Connolly, whose credits include Into the Badlands and Colony, serving as showrunner.
The show’s cancellation so soon after its premiere might come as a surprise, especially since the initial reactions to Night Sky were quite positive.
Did critics like Night Sky?
Generally. We’re not saying anything great, but holds a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (opens in new tab)and a quick scan of the page shows far more bright red tomatoes than green spots.
Critics were especially full of praise for Simmons and Spacek, who they believed elevate the show above ordinary science fiction, even though most thought that, at eight episodes, the show was a little too long.
The public also liked it, giving it a rating of 81%. Again, this is nothing off the scale, but it’s still the kind of good reactions that usually set things up for a second round.
Strangely, though, Night Sky has already earned its place in the record books and made history.
Made history? Like this?
Using Amazon’s immense resources and likely entrepreneur Jeff Bezos’ obsession with all things intergalactic, Prime Video teamed up with Amazon Web Services, SES and Intelsat to stream the show’s first episode into outer space.
This marks the furthest distance from planet Earth that a TV series has been distributed, and as a result, made Prime Video the first streamer to distribute its content directly into space.
For fans of the show, this is a good thing to remember, but apparently, even airing in space doesn’t guarantee a second season in today’s relentless TV landscape.
Prime Video’s latest TV hit, The Terminal List, arrived last week. But it turns out that the critics did not accept this. Read our summary of their verdicts here…