Why NBC Canceled Shanola Hampton's Found After Two Seasons

Fans of NBC's mystery series "Found" are going to have to look elsewhere to get their dose of fictional missing persons cases now that the series has been canceled by the network after two seasons. As was reported by Deadline, the show will not be returning for a season 3, meaning the season 2 finale will serve as the series finale (for now, at least).

According to a separate report from Variety, Warner Bros. Television, which produces "Found," is going to see if it can find a new home for the show, be it a streaming service or another network. This sort of thing has happened plenty of times in the past, like when "Designated Survivor" went from ABC to Netflix or "Lucifer" moved from Fox to Netflix. So, while it's possible, for the time being fans need to come to grips with the fact that Gabi Mosely may well be retired.

"Found" itself centers on Gabi (Shanola Hampton), a kidnapping survivor who now leads a team tasked with searching for missing people. She is backed by a band of folks whose lives have also been touched by missing persons' cases and will stop at nothing to bring these victims home. But Gabi is harboring a dark secret as she's been secretly solving cases with the help of Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), the man who kidnapped Gabi as a teen and is being held captive in Gabi's basement.

As for where the series could end up, if not NBC? That's anyone's guess. Peacock seems unlikely as streaming losses are mounting for both it and Apple TV+ (along with pretty much every other subscription-based service not named Netflix, Disney+, or Max). Most streamers are being more picky about programming, as are networks for that matter, with competition for eyeballs in a splintered media environment having made it tricker than ever to craft a hit. Still, this may yet prove to be one of those "one man's junk is another man's treasure" situations. 

Now, the big question: Why did NBC cancel "Found" after season 2? As these things pretty much always do, it came down to dollars and cents at the end of the day. In many cases, that's a relatively simple viewership vs. cost equation. The reports did note that viewership had declined pretty significantly for the show in its second season, which was certainly a factor. Given that broadcast and cable now account for less than 50% of all TV viewership, that makes sense.

However, there was another important factor at play here. This is part of a broader cutback on scripted programming as a result of the 180 primetime hours of basketball that will air on the network next season as part of NBCUniversal's $2.5 billion per-year deal with the NBA. That resulted in NBC also canceling "The Irrational," "Night Court," "Lopez vs Lopez," and, most surprising of all, "Suits LA" after just one season. The spin-off of the highly successful "Suits" seemed like a slam dunk in light of the original show's popularity. Yet, here we are.

"Found" also starred Kelli Williams, Brett Dalton, Gabrielle Walsh, Arlen Escarpeta, and Karan Oberoi, with Nkechi Okoro Carroll serving as the showrunner. The series was executive produced by Carroll, Sonay Hoffman, Sarah Schechter, Leigh London Redman, Lindsay Dunn, and mega-producer Greg Berlanti (who was also behind The CW's Arrowverse). Hampton further served as a producer in addition to starring in the series.

"Found" is streaming now on Peacock.