The hunt is over for The Winchesters: The CW has cancelled the Supernatural prequel spinoff after just one season, TVLine has learned. (The network on Thursday also pulled the plug on Kung Fu.)
The Winchesters‘ freshman season averaged 790,000 total viewers and a 0.2 demo rating (with Live+7 playback). Out of the 14 dramas that The CW aired this TV season, it ranks No. 7 in audience and is a five-way tie for No. 2 in the demo (trailing only All American).
“As we reimagine the new CW, we had to make some tough programming decisions,” the network said in a statement. “We thank our partners at Warner Bros. and the casts and creative teams of Kung Fu and The Winchesters for all their hard work, creativity and dedication.”
The Winchesters centered around Dean and Sam’s parents, John Winchester (played by The In Between‘s Drake Rodger) and Mary Campbell (American Housewife‘s Meg Donnelly), and was described as “the epic, untold love story of how John met Mary and how they put it all on the line to not only save their love, but the entire world.” It was told from the perspective of their eldest son, Dean, with Supernatural co-lead Jensen Ackles narrating. The actor also executive-produced the offshoot alongside his wife Danneel Ackles and showrunner Robbie Thompson (who was an EP/writer on Supernatural)
Rounding out the cast were Bianca Kajlich (Legacies) as John’s mother Millie Winchester; Demetria McKinney (Motherland: Fort Salem, House of Payne) as rare books store owner/magic expert Ada; and Nida Khurshid (Station 19) and Jojo Fleites as Mary’s hunting pals, Lata and Carlos.
The show’s finale, which aired March 7, featured appearances from executive producer Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, as well as Supernatural vets Jim Beaver (as hunter Bobby Singer) and Alexander Calvert (as Heaven’s new God, Jack). In the episode, Dean explained that when he got to Heaven, he took his beloved Impala for a drive through the multiverse, looking for an Earth where his family had a shot at a happy ending. After catching wind of the Akrida and its potential threat to the Earth where Sam was still living, he gave John the letter from his father Henry Winchester to nudge him in the right direction, and thus, he met Mary and became a hunter.
During a post-mortem interview, showrunner Robbie Thompson told TVLine, “There’s so much more story to tell about where these two kids go. And because now, as Dean says at the end of the episode, they have a chance to write their own story that doesn’t have to be necessarily what happened on our version of Supernatural, we have an opportunity to really go into some interesting places.”
Among the broadcast shows still on the bubble are The CW’s All American: Homecoming, Gotham Knights and Superman & Lois. Check out TVLine’s Renewal Scorecard for the latest intel on those series and many others.
Winchesters fans, hit the comments with your reactions!
This story originally appeared on TVLine
