“The power of Christ compels you, Fox! You are commanded to abjure your supernatural dramas about devils this very instant! Cast them back into the pit of hell from whence they came—then salt the earth, preferably with the family-friendly comedic stylings of Tim Allen. We love him up here.”
With the above incantation, Fox has canceled its supernatural dramas Lucifer and The Exorcist. The former has seen its fortunes change quickly, the vagaries of fate having previously granted it strong ratings, a second season that saw it tying the much splashier Gotham in the ratings, and an early third-season renewal. Unfortunately, the hell that is daily life seems to have lessened people’s appetite for the avatar of a fictional one (despite the show having gotten quite good), and ratings dropped in recent months. Now it descends into the TV afterlife of snakes, boils, and hopefully some post-mortem Netflix viewers. In a candid series of tweets, showrunner Joe Henderson mourned the cancellation and apologized to fans for leaving them with a cliffhanger: