Amazon Prime Video cancelled its science fiction TV series Night Sky, which starred Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons, this week after only one season.
Amazon Prime Video's Night Sky starred Academy Award-winning actors Spacek (Carrie) and Simmons (the Spider-Man films, Whiplash) as an elderly couple who discover a portal to another planet in their home. They try to keep the secret to themselves, but one day a mysterious man appears inside the portal and things start to fall apart.
The series was released on May 20, 2022, and its cancellation was announced only one and a half months later, on July 5. Night Sky received generally positive reviews, with a 73% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and a 66% on Metacritic. However, according to Deadline, its viewership was likely too low to justify the sizable budget required for the science fiction concept. The financial inviability of the project likely wasn’t helped when Amazon made the bravura decision to beam its first episode into space. Night Sky now holds the record for the furthest distribution from Earth of any show in history. Although the show has been canceled on Earth, it will continue for many years outside the solar system. Perhaps someday season 2 might be beamed back to us from the Andromeda Galaxy.
The series’ cancellation is interesting in that it shows even Amazon can have financial concerns about a project. For some time now, Prime Video has been a big name in the international film festival circuit for its willingness to buy niche titles. Even films which would almost certainly not turn a profit have been purchased by Amazon Prime Video as a way to build positive brand recognition. In other words, they have valued quality over profit in the past.
One of the most prominent examples of Amazon's spendthrift approach to streaming is The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The streamer spent roughly $250 million just to purchase the rights to the property. Furthermore, they committed to five seasons for the show right out of the gate, with an estimated $100-150 million budget per season. By the time all was said and done, the series was expected to cost over $1 billion to purchase and produce, an absolutely colossal price tag that made it the most expensive TV series of all time.
Because audiences are used to seeing this level of financial over-confidence from Amazon Prime Video, Night Sky's cancellation makes the streamer appear—so to speak—more human.
Night Sky is available on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: Deadline