‘American Gods’ Series Cancelled
American Gods’ recent season finale will now be the final episode of the Starz drama. The series has been cancelled by Starz after three seasons and 26 episodes. Per TV Line, however, the show may get a TV movie to wrap up the story or what they call an “event series.” The show, how, will not be getting a full Season 4.
A spokesperson for the network said in a statement: “Everyone at Starz is grateful to the dedicated cast and crew, and our partners at Fremantle who brought author and executive producer Neil Gaiman’s ever-relevant story to life that speaks to the cultural climate of our country.”
Though the show’s viewing figures may be boosted by airing on Amazon Prime Video internationally, it seems that low ratings have been responsible for the show ending. Per TV Series Finale, the show’s third season received average ratings of just 170,000 viewers per episode.
This means that the show lost nearly half of its viewers between Season 2 and Season 3.
The network’s eight scripted shows that have aired this season, American Gods Season 3 had the second-lowest viewing figures. Only The Spanish Princess received lower ratings, and that show also ended this season.
The show does better among the demographic of viewers aged between 18 and 49, with the show fifth out of eight on that metric. However, it has lost a whopping 65 per cent of those viewers this season.
The show has also been hit with numerous scandals and cast departures over the last four years. Show runners Michael Green and Bryan Fuller lost the show after Season 1 following creative differences with the network, and actors Gillian Anderson and Kristen Chenoweth also left at that time.
Season 2’s show runner was Jesse Alexander, who exited the show after reports of him being side-lined emerged. Then, former American Gods actor Orlando Jones made public a private message that lead actor Ricky Whittle had reportedly sent to him in which he talked about “incompetence” on set.
This came after Jones released a video explaining why he would not be in Season 3. He said in this video, “All what I was told was, ‘angry gets s— done’ is the wrong message for black America, and that the new show runner writes from a black male perspective.”
Per Jones in a since-deleted tweet archived on Archive.org, Whittle responded to this by writing: “Using the racism card to burn your friend’s house down is clever but we both know its incompetence not racism & we are caught in the crossfire… We totally had your back on the incompetence, but pulling the race card to [incite] public trolls is a tactic & u know it.”
American Gods’ production company Fremantle said of this in a statement, “Jones’ option was not picked up because Mr. Nancy, among other characters, is not featured in the portion of the book we are focusing on within season three.”
Season 3 of the show was also forced to edit out Marilyn Manson’s role as the leader of a Gothic metal band after he was accused of sexual abuse by Evan Rachel Wood—accusations he has denied.
American Gods Seasons 1 to 3 is streaming now on Starz in the U.S. and Amazon Prime Video around the world.