Amazon Prime Video has canceled “Countdown” and “Butterfly” after one season each.
The two freshman dramas, headlined by Jensen Ackles and Daniel Dae Kim respectively, aired earlier this year and are produced by Amazon MGM Studios.
Both “Countdown” and “Butterfly” appeared on Nielsen’s top 10 streaming originals chart.
Created by Derek Haas, “Countdown” followed an LAPD detective who is recruited to an undercover task force to track down the murderer of a Department of Homeland Security officer. The search for the killer reveals a dark conspiracy, sparking a race against the clock to save Los Angeles.
Speaking to Variety after the cliffhanger season finale, Ackles said the show was “designed to lead into Season 2, so fingers crossed Amazon is still liking what they’re seeing, and the audience participation and the critics talking about it give us enough firepower to continue that story and see where this goes.” He added: “Obviously, it would suck if it just ends there!”
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Variety chief TV critic Aramide Tinubu was not a fan of the series, calling it “monotonous” and a “snooze fest.”
“Not one individual on the force is truly compelling or distinct. Backstories that should have added color to the main plot only weigh down the extremely thin storyline,” she wrote in her review. “Without compelling storylines or characters, the show fails to make a significant impression.”
She was not the only one: “Countdown” scored a 35% “rotten” score among critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Created by Steph Cha and Ken Woodruff, “Butterfly” follows a former U.S. intelligence agent whose past decisions come back to haunt him and his family.
Tinubu similarly gave the show a negative review, writing, “Though the series has all of the components that make for a compelling thriller, it’s more smoke and mirrors than gritty character-driven material.”
Prime Video recently made decisions on other series, too, renewing “We Were Liars” and “Overcompensating” and canceling “Motorheads.” The streamer also renewed the crime thriller “Ballard,” a spinoff of “Bosch.”
Deadline broke the news.