Why Syfy Canceled Channel Zero

For a time, "Channel Zero" was hailed as the best horror show on television. Premiering in 2016 on Syfy, the anthology series took popular creepypastas from the internet and spun them into small-screen terror gold. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, with this hailed show meeting its end after four seasons in 2019.

"Channel Zero" was canceled by Syfy in January 2019, just a couple of months after the show's fourth season, titled "The Dream Door," wrapped up its run. The network didn't take long to make its decision. But why did they cancel the acclaimed show when the endless string of creepypasta lore could have paved the way for endless seasons? As always, it comes down to the juice being worth the squeeze. In this case, Syfy — or more importantly, the network's parent company NBCUniversal — just wasn't making enough from its investment to press forth.

At the time, NBCUniversal was hatching plans to launch its own streaming service, which we would come to know as Peacock. It debuted in July 2020 at the height of the pandemic. The pandemic wasn't even a concern when "Channel Zero" was canceled, though. What was a concern was the billions that NBCU was going to have to invest in Peacock to compete with the likes of Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and others in the marketplace. Peacock lost billions and billions of dollars in its first few years of operation.

More to the point, "Channel Zero" had a deal in place to stream exclusively on Shudder. That was good for horror fans as the service caters very well to genre lovers. But it wasn't doing anything to help NBCU out in the streaming game, as Shudder is owned by AMC Networks. The streaming-focused future of Hollywood forced companies to think in terms of exclusive content, and that was undoubtedly a consideration with this show.

Setting aside any streaming considerations, the show was never a big hit in the ratings and was showing signs of decline. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the first season averaged 543,000 viewers during the initial airing. By season 4, that number had dropped to just 265,000 viewers. This, despite the fact that "Channel Zero" season 4 had earned very good reviews.

Still, good reviews only get you so far. A network needs viewership to justify continuing a show. For his part, series creator Nick Antosca took the whole thing in stride. Taking to Instagram in 2019 after the news broke, he had this to say about it. "I loved making this show, and I would have loved to do more ... but I can't complain too much about doing 4 stories I loved with people who I loved working with." He continued:

"People like our writers, our actors, our extraordinary crew, the artists who contributed, our editors and post team, our composer Jeff Russo, our team at Syfy and UCP. And especially the four awesome directors, Craig Macneill, Steven Piet, Arkasha Stevenson, and Evan Katz. And before all that, the authors of the original creepypasta stories. Kris Straub, Brian Russell, Kerry Hammond, and Charlotte Bywater."

"I'm deeply grateful for this experience. Especially to everybody who watched, talked about, and wrote about the show. There are stories we didn't get to tell and creatures you didn't get to see, but still might," Antosca added.

Antosca went on to have more success in the realm of horror on TV. He co-created "Brand New Cherry Flavor" for Netflix, which premiered in 2021. More recently, he served as an executive producer on the "Chucky" TV series, which ran for three seasons on Syfy and USA Network. He's also behind the upcoming TV version of "Cape Fear," which is in the works at Apple TV+.

You can stream "Channel Zero" on Shudder.