Along with its first two new series pickups, Rise and For God & Country, NBC made its first official pre-upfront cancellation tonight, axing the Wizard of Oz-themed drama Emerald City after one season.
The series, executive produced by Shaun Cassidy and David Schulner, never connected with viewers or critics and was not expected to go to Season 2.
Emerald City, originally envisioned as a modern and dark reimagining of the classic tale of Oz in the vein of Game of Thrones, had a long and complicated road to the screen. NBC first greenlighted it with different writers in January 2014 with a 10-episode straight-to-series order but, after several scripts, pulled the plug that summer. Then two years ago, in April 2015, the network again gave the project a 10-episode straight-to-series with a new writer/executive producer, Schulner. This time, it made it to the air, averaging a tepid 0.7 adults 18-49 rating and 3 million viewers in Live+same day for the season.
