TV Shows

Aftermath Cancelled: Here’s What Happened to the Syfy Show

(Syfy/Aftermath)

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Was Aftermath cancelled? Is there any chance we might see a Season 2? A mysterious tweet and Facebook post from Syfy’s Aftermath social media accounts have left a lot of fans really worried. Unfortunately, after doing some research, we discovered that the news isn’t good. 🙁 Aftermath is gone and we won’t see a second season.  (If you haven’t seen all the Aftermath episodes, you can check them out on Amazon here.)

#Aftermath was canceled. 🙁 Find out more here. #sad Click To Tweet

Actor & Writer on ‘Aftermath’ Tweeted That Show Was Cancelled

For those who were holding out hope, James Tupper, an actor and writer on Aftermath, killed all remaining hope. He tweeted that Aftermath would not be getting a second season.

Someone tweeted to him “I’m so sad,” and he answered, “Me too.” 🙁

A Strange Tweet From Aftermath’s Social Media Accounts Left Viewers with Questions

Really bummed that #Aftermath is gone. 🙁 Click To Tweet

Around noon on Thursday, the following tweet was posted to Aftermath’s Twitter account. For viewers who hadn’t seen James Tupper’s tweet, it was really confusing:

It reads: “Big thanks to #AftermathSeries fans for following us into the #EndoftheWorld! Special thanks to @Syfy @spacechannel for a wild adventure!”

This certainly sounded like the end. Fans could have held out hope this was just about the season finale, but that was all the way back in December. Why post this now?

No one was quite sure on Twitter. But the post sounded ominous. If they were just thanking the fans that would be one thing. But thanking Syfy for the “wild adventure” makes it sound like the adventure might be coming to an end.

They posted the same thing on their Facebook page, so it wasn’t an accident.

Fans responded with questions about the strange Facebook post. Aftermath officials had yet to answer or clarify.

Instead, the answer could only be found by looking at an earlier tweet from James Tupper, who starred on the show.

It Wasn’t Perfect, But It Should Be Renewed

Aftermath was kind of a love/love-not-so-much show for many viewers. (We don’t want to say love/hate, because we never hated it.)

As our fellow post-apocalyptic Twitter friend FromtheWastes (who first alerted us to Aftermath’s demise!) wrote:

The show tended to make me want to punch bunnies, but my curiosity always won in the end.” – @FromtheWastes

There were some really great parts of the show. Being able to see all the different types of apocalypses was one of them — from your normal earthquakes and volcanoes to fantasy-level dragons and dinosaurs. The “specialness” of the family was also intriguing. Now, there were times when some of the characters were written a little oddly. (For example, why did they leave the first compound they found, where they had everything under control, just because their family member was killed?) My husband, for example, loved the show in the beginning, but then was worried every episode after awhile, because some of them were great and some of them just weren’t. He never knew what he was going to get from one episode to the next.

But there were still enough good elements to warrant a renewal. It’s a unique show and the characters are pretty interesting. I like the dynamic between the mom and and the dad — he’s full of faith and she’s skeptical, but still supports him. Some of the scenes were a little cliche, but it was still enjoyable to watch. I didn’t want to see it go.

Now we’re just left with a lot of questions. Like what happened to the mom? As our Twitter friend @drvictorian asked, “Do we just make up our own endings now?”

The Ratings Weren’t Great, But Better Than Some Other Now-Renewed Syfy Shows

The show never even hit a million viewers per episode. It hovered between .7 million and .5. Its greatest viewed episode was episode 2, with .755 million. At some points it dropped pretty low, getting all the way down to .506 on December 13. But for the Dec. 20 finale, it was back up to .701.

For some contrast, the well-reviewed Syfy show The Expanse clocked in at only .555 million viewers for its last episode on February 2, 2016, although its premiere had 1.189 million.

But these aren’t the kind of numbers that Syfy loves. Highly loved Eureka was in a world of its own, averaging 3.2 million viewers an episode in Season 3.  Battlestar Galactica sometimes got 4 million viewers, with its finale averaging around 2.3. (Note that these are live viewers, not overall numbers including recordings, etc.)

But for some contrast: 12 Monkeys Season 2 was much lower than Aftermath, with .43 million viewers for its finale. Z Nation was higher, with .874 million for its December finale. (But really, not that much higher than Aftermath.)

So with these numbers in mind, it seems really strange that Syfy would be throwing in the towel on Aftermath already, unless it was a matter of how much the episodes cost to make.

If you look at the ratings solely based on the highly desired 18-49 demographic, out of all its current Syfy shows, Aftermath ranked 8th out of 15. But some shows below it were already renewed. Essentially, although the show’s numbers weren’t great, they weren’t bad enough to warrant a Season 1 cancelation. So we’re not sure why it happened.

We’ll update this story if/when we know more.

We’ll be writing more about Aftermath, along with other post-apocalyptic shows you’ll love, so you’ll want to be on our email list to stay updated. Join our email list by clicking here. 

    Stephanie Dwilson started Post Apocalyptic Media with her husband Derek. She's a licensed attorney and has a master's in science and technology journalism. You can reach her at [email protected].

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