Amazon Just Cancelled The #2 Show In Its Top 10 List

If you are occasionally baffled about why streaming services cancel seemingly successful shows, here’s another example for you.

Amazon Prime Video has just cancelled The Bondsman, the Kevin Bacon supernatural comedy that has him playing an undead bounty hunter. The twist here is that The Bondsman is a former #1 show on its Top 10 list, and as we sit here, it is the #2 original series on the service after a month and a half, as it was released on April 2. It’s behind only Amazon ultra-megahit Reacher and still labeled a “new series.”

The show was not meant to be a miniseries, and the way it ended suggested it would be back for more. The cast also shared hopes for a season 2 online. Here’s the full synopsis of the series if you haven’t watched yourself:

“Murdered bounty hunter Hub Halloran (Bacon) is resurrected by the Devil to trap and send back demons that have escaped from the prison of Hell. By chasing down those demons with the help and hinderance of his estranged family, Hub learns how his own sins got his soul condemned — which pushes him to seek a second chance at life, love, and country music.”

Why did this happen? Amazon isn’t giving any clues and those behind the scenes aren’t either, but we know why this sort of thing can happen. In this case.

• Cost? – It’s a supernatural show with some level of VFX, which is expensive than more down-to-earth dramas. It also stars A-lister Kevin Bacon and would have whatever his salary is (we have no idea if it’s high or not, however).
• Viewership? – Again, it seems bizarre this is happening when the show is currently #2 on Amazon after a month and a half, but it could be “good for Amazon” but not good enough generally, as it only appeared on the overall ielsen ratings list once.
• Viewer Commitment? – One very, very important metric in streaming is whether viewers watch all the way through to the end of a series. The Bondsman was released as a batch for binge viewership, not requiring viewers to return week to week, so it should have been easier to watch to its conclusion. Maybe it wasn’t.

It’s tough for the cast and with this Top 10 placement it still seems very weird and like viewership would not actually be a problem. But we have no idea what happens behind the scenes with this sort of thing and we probably never will.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.