‘The Purge’ And Jason Bourne Spin-Off Series’ Treadstone’ Canceled At USA
By Ethan Anderton/May 14, 2020 9:30 am EST
Deadline has word on USA network having the Jason Bourne spin-off series Treadstone and The Purge canceled. Both were shows inspired by Universal film franchises, and both became too expensive for the kind of ratings they were bringing in. So The Purge is coming to an end after two seasons, and Treadstone has been taken out after just one season.
As for Treadstone, which followed the origin story of the titular CIA black ops program that spawned the character Jason Bourne, the show started with decent numbers around 647,000. But even though the series was doing very well with delayed viewing numbers, the first season finale only pulled in around 371,000, which is a steep drop, especially for a high profile show with ties to a major film franchise.
Overall, networks and cable channels are starting to veer away from more expensive narrative programming unless it’s something that can be considered an event series or even a limited series. Unscripted and live programming has started to take the spotlight, mostly because it’s much cheaper to make, and we’re likely to see even more of an increase in that type of programming now that the coronavirus pandemic is causing Hollywood to hemorrhage money. Don’t be surprised if you start hearing about even more shows getting canceled in the coming months.
