Amid several pickups for next season, FOX also delivered bad news to some series Tuesday. Joining “Human Target” and “Breaking In” on the cancellation block are freshman drama “The Chicago Code,” third-season drama “Lie to Me” and freshman comedy “Traffic Light,” the various trades confirmed.
“Traffic Light” never stood a chance–from the get-go, it barely offered an improvement over failed “Running Wilde” in the post-“Raising Hope” slot and seemed like filler to take FOX through the end of the season.
“Code” should have appeared just as likely for cancellation, but its combination of at least passable viewership numbers for early episodes and critical love for its creator Shawn Ryan made people more optimistic.
Ultimately, however, its numbers were just not good enough, and there were no signs of improvement. Though its “House” lead-in has notably weakened over the course of the season, “Code”‘s retention was nothing to celebrate. It managed only a 1.7 adults 18-49 rating out of a 3.0 for “House” this Monday.
Given FOX’s options on the development slate and the fact that a show like “Lie to Me,” which is hardly a ratings winner and was also cancelled, could pull the same or better numbers in the slot, there was just no justification to keep “The Chicago Code” on the roster.
While the aforementioned four shows are gone, FOX also brought some good news Tuesday. Several pilots, including “Alcatraz” and “The New Girl” have been picked up to series.