Netflix cancels Travelers, proving that our timeline has been abandoned

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Time-travel drama Travelers has been one of my favorite streaming shows of recent years. It followed a group of time travelers sent from hundreds of years in the future to try to avert multiple catastrophes that left the world ravaged by war and environmental disaster, with humanity eking out its survival in a handful of biodomes. The first two seasons were produced by Showcase in Canada and streamed by Netflix. The third, released last December, was a Netflix exclusive.

Alas, that’s where Netflix’s involvement ends, with lead Eric McCormack (of Will & Grace fame) announcing that the show has not been renewed for a fourth season.

Unlike viewers of other cancelled shows, we are at least spared the misery of an unresolved cliffhanger. The third season felt perhaps a little rushed—it could have made its way to the same endpoint over many more seasons—but it ended in a way that wrapped up the story and even gave some of the characters a happy ending. But even with the story wrapped up, it left plenty of room for exploring the same universe. Moreover, it strongly implied that the future crisis had not been averted and that there was still work for the time travelers to do if a brighter future for humanity was to be created.

As such, season 3 presented a nice hedge against cancellation; it was a satisfactory ending if no more episodes were to be produced, but it left the door open to more. Admittedly, ripple effects from changing the past mean that most of the cast would have been hard-pressed to return, with the notable exception of McCormack himself. But that might have been just the element necessary to keep the show fresh.

How to rate streaming success

The logic behind Netflix’s cancellations remains inscrutable. For regular broadcast TV, viewership numbers are published soon after shows are aired, making it easy to know which shows are underperforming and which are not. Nielsen has claimed to track streaming viewership, but Netflix has rejected the data firm’s claims, saying that it’s inaccurate, leaving streaming viewership something of an unknown.

With Netflix not selling ads alongside shows, what even makes a show a success or failure is not clear. Driving subscriptions is, of course, the long-term goal. But that goal may be achieved better through a show that few watch but that the media talks about endlessly than something that’s popular but makes little splash outside of the existing subscriber base. In those terms, Travelers was no Stranger Things or House of Cards; there was no wider media phenomenon, just a solid, enjoyable, well-assembled TV show.

It’s also possible, of course, that with the story neatly concluded, the show’s creators felt they’d rather end on a high—an artistic decision not to continue, rather than a business decision. Either way, the cancellation leaves behind plenty of disappointed fans. We’ll have to find our time-travel fix somewhere else.

Listing image by Netflix

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