‘The Passage’ Canceled By Fox After One Season

Vampire drama series The Passage, based on Justin Cronin’s novels, will not be getting a second season on Fox.

The news is not unexpected. As we noted in our story yesterday on Fox’s decision to pick up four new drama series, with a fifth pending, the move did not bode will for the network’s bubble dramas Star, Lethal Weapon and The Passage, all of which were canceled today.

The series, starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar, from Liz Heldens, Matt Reeves, Scott Free and 20th Century Fox TV, got off to a promising start with its January 12 series premiere. It notched a 1.3 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 5.218 million viewers (Live+same day), building onto its The Resident demo lead-in (1.1/5.522M). But the serialized drama’s ratings then declined, ending the season with new lows in both the demo (0.7) and total viewers (3.122M) in its two-hour March 11 season finale.

Written by Heldens, The Passage was an epic, character‐driven thriller about a secret government medical facility experimenting with a dangerous virus that could either cure all disease or cause the downfall of the human race. The series focused on a 10‐year‐old girl named Amy Bellafonte (Saniyya Sidney), who was chosen to be a test subject for this experiment and Brad Wolgast (Gosselaar), the federal agent who became her surrogate father as he tried to protect her.

In addition to Gosselaar and Sidney, the cast included Vincent Piazza, Brianne Howey, Jamie McShane, Caroline Chikezie, and Emmanuelle Chriqui as Dr. Lila Kyle.

Heldens executive produced with Reeves, Free, David W. Zucker and Adam Kassan. 20th Century Fox TV produced with 6th & Idaho, Scott Free.

Fox today also canceled The Cool Kids comedy series after one season.