NBC has canceled Debris after one season.
The cancellation of the sci-fi drama was first reported by Variety last Thursday, just three days after its May 24th season-ender, which now serves as the series finale.
Though well-received by critics, with a 72% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, the J. H. Wyman-created series had lukewarm ratings and never found its footing. The show’s 13-episode freshman run only averaged a 0.38 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 2.79 million viewers in the live+same day ratings. Out of the 14 dramas that NBC has aired this TV season, it ranks No. 10 in the demo and 11th in total audience.
Produced by Legendary TV and Universal TV, Debris follows CIA agent Bryan Beneventi (Jonathan Tucker) and MI6 operative Finola Jones (Riann Steele) as they team up to recover and investigate pieces of an alien spaceship that fell on Earth. Each piece of wreckage is found to have unusual and often deadly effects on humans and their surroundings, so the two must set their differences aside to solve the mystery as soon as possible before someone else does. The series also stars Norbert Leo Butz, Scoobius Pip, Tyrone Benskin, Anjali Jay, John Noble, and Thomas Cardrot.
Despite the Debris’ cancellation, Tucker shared in a tweet that he’s “very proud of the show, the crew, and the cast,” calling the series “honorable work in process and outcome.”
After last Monday’s finale, Wyman said that there’s more story to tell, making the cancellation even more heartbreaking for fans. “If the worst case is to happen, that, they decide that they weren’t going to continue this, I would look for other avenues to continue telling this story because I think that the story itself is really a story worth writing about,” said Wyman, who is also best known for his work on Fox’s Fringe and Almost Human.
Though many canceled shows got a second life after being saved by a different broadcast network or streaming service, Collider noted that Debris’ brief exhibition window and low ratings make it difficult for the series to earn enough public interest to continue its story somewhere else.
With Debris’ cancellation, the remaining NBC shows still awaiting word on new seasons are Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Good Girls, and Manifest.