'Terra Nova' gets canceled by Fox

'Terra Nova,' which lost viewers over its first season and was an expensive show to produce, has officially been canceled by Fox.

The prehistoric adventures of the Shannon family in Terra Nova have come to a end on Fox, as the network has announced that they will not be renewing the series for a second season. Fortunately, Terra Nova may still continue on another network.

Simply confirming Terra Nova’s nonrenewal late Monday evening, no statement about its cancelation had been released by the network.

Taking to Twitter, series star Jason O’Mara announced the cancelation to fans:

Bad news guys, Terra Nova has been cancelled by Fox.

While Terra Nova may have been canceled by Fox, 20th Century TV (the studio that produces the series) is still attempting to bring Terra Nova season 2 to air on another television network, though no negotiations have been announced yet.

Returning to Twitter, O’Mara confirmed the plans to continue Terra Nova on another network.

Bad news guys. #TerraNova has been cancelled by @FoxBroadcasting – we’re gonna try and get another network to do it. Stand by : (

Premiering in September 2011, Terra Nova was considered a television experiment by the network. With high upfront costs stemming for lofty visual concepts, Terra Nova attempted to bring the beauty of theatrical visual effects to television audiences. With a pilot that reportedly cost $14 million, Terra Nova premiered to 9.2 million viewers. Unfortunately, by the time the first season of Terra Nova came to a close, only 7.2 million viewers tuned in.

And while Terra Nova may have lost its way (and its viewers) along the way, Fox’s president of entertainment Kevin Reily revealed that Terra Nova is actually considered a success for everyone involved, with both the network and studio making money on the project.

Though Terra Nova was a fiscally successful project, it’s unlikely that the series will find a new home on another network – at least on a network that could support the $4 million per episode cost.

Even if the series were able to continue on a new network – which would likely be on cable – the cost of the budget would be cut significantly, thus removing the series’ ability to ever reach those lofty visual goals that it originally had set for itself.

So while Terra Nova could continue on another network, perhaps its best to leave the Shannon family in the land of the lost.

Anthony Ocasio blogs at Screen Rant.