Why CBS Canceled Jordan Peele's The Twilight Zone Reboot

Jordan Peele's "The Twilight Zone" seemed as though it might just be able to hit "Black Mirror" levels of cultural significance when it debuted back in 2019 — especially with Peele being the face of the series. But the show was banished to another dimension by CBS after two seasons. So what went wrong?

"The Twilight Zone" remains as relevant today as it was back in the 1960s. In many ways, the show has never stopped being relevant since creator Rod Serling shepherded the five original seasons between 1959 and 1964. That's evidenced by countless pop culture references in the following decades and multiple reboots, revivals, and revisits that have sprung up since it went off the air. There was the notoriously cursed "Twilight Zone" movie in 1982 and the lesser known 1994 CBS TV movie "Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics," as well as multiple audio episodes broadcast on BBC Radio between 2002 and 2012. But there were also three full-on remakes of the original series, with the first debuting in 1985 before a second revival dropped in 2002. The former remains an overlooked gem, and the latter is overlooked for good reason (it was doomed from the start thanks to network interference).

The third "Twilight Zone" revival had the benefit of Jordan Peele's involvement. The horror maestro had become somewhat of a spokesperson for the genre having become a superstar filmmaker with his 2017 film "Get Out" while already having significant appeal among the masses for his comedic work as one half of Key & Peele. As such, having Peele front a "Twilight Zone" revival made a lot of sense.

In 2019, the same year that Peele's "Us" debuted in theaters, we got his revival of "The Twilight Zone," with the horror director serving as narrator of the series alongside his executive producer duties. Two years later, the show was canceled — or as Peele tells it, simply finished telling the stories it needed to tell. Here's why.

"The Twilight Zone" reboot debuted on the since-shuttered CBS All Access on April 1, 2019, with an episode entitled "The Comedian," which starred Kumail Nanjiani and was easily one of the best, and most controversial episodes of "The Twilight Zone" reboot. Rod Serling's original formula remained pretty much unchanged, with Jordan Peele narrating the anthology series which comprised science fiction, fantasy, and horror tales that had a heavy metaphorical element. Reviews were solid. Season 1 of the series managed a 71% Rotten Tomatoes score, which surely contributed to the show being renewed for a second season halfway through the first run of 10 episodes.

The second season was released on June 25, 2020, with all episodes debuting at the same time rather than following the weekly release schedule of the first season. The newer episodes didn't quite match the first ten in terms of RT score, though. Season 2 earned a 64% critic rating which, though lower than the first season, was far from a marked drop-off in quality.

It was somewhat of a surprise, then, when in February 2021 Deadline reported that "The Twilight Zone" wouldn't be returning for a third season. It seems part of the issue stemmed from CBS All Access transforming into Paramount+, which at the time was touted by the company as "part of the service's expansion to feature content from ViacomCBS' leading portfolio of broadcast, news, sports, and entertainment brands." When CBS All Access released its list of series that would continue into the new Paramount+ age, however, "The Twilight Zone" wasn't included.

When "The Twilight Zone" was first canceled, Julie McNamara, executive VP and head of programming for Paramount+, released a statement praising the series and its creators. "Jordan Peele, [executive producer] Simon Kinberg and the entire production team truly reimagined 'The Twilight Zone' for the modern age," she said. "They upheld the classic series' legacy of socially conscious storytelling and pushed today's viewers to explore all new dimensions of thought-provoking and topical themes that we hope will resonate with audiences for years to come." Given those complimentary words, you might wonder why Paramount didn't give Peele another crack at "The Twilight Zone." Well, according to Peele, it was his decision to pack it up.

When the cancellation was first announced, The Hollywood Reporter published a report that contained a statement from Peele's Monkeypaw Productions and Kinberg's Genre Films, in which the pair claimed that after "20 unique episodes," they had "told the stories that we wanted to tell, and CBS All Access was gracious in their understanding of our decision." THR also reported that sources had confirmed it was, in fact, Peele's decision to end the series after its second season. The reality might well have been a mixture of Peele's reluctance to continue and less than impressive ratings, but officially, it seems, Peele was allowed to say it was his and Kinberg's choice.

During its somewhat brief run, the show did an admirable job of continuing Rod Serling's legacy of pioneering the sci-fi genre for years, and while it wasn't the mega-hit CBS and Peele were surely hoping for, it certainly didn't do a disservice to the legendary show that started it all.