Scream Queens has been canceled after two seasons. The show, one of many in Ryan Murphy's current TV vehicles, first premiered in 2015. A mix of campy horror, comedy, and gore, it was similar to American Horror Story but with a younger-skewing audience, following its characters as they're terrorized by a different serial killers. Its slight continuity departed from AHS' true anthology format, picking up with the characters that had survived rather than rebooting each season.
Its first outing centered around a college campus plagued by an enigmatic killer dubbed the Red Devil, while season 2 swapped sorority sisters for a hospital ward, where the "Green Meanie" was murdering innocent patients at the C.U.R.E. institute. Among the revolving door of cast members were Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lea Michele, and Billie Lourd.
Now, THR reports that during a conference call with reporters on Monday to discuss the network's fall schedule, FOX co-chairman and CEO Gary Newman confirmed that the series would not be moving forward. "Scream Queens was an anthological series," he said. "It feels as if it was a compete story. We have no plans at this point to go back there and tell more stories."
The news should come with little surprise. Though Scream Queens had a following, it had faced soft ratings and mixed reviews throughout its one-year run. Its second season shifted the setting off-campus in part to attract a wider audience, and while it did fare better, a season 3 still looked unlikely. According to Variety, the final episode closed out with 1.38 million viewers overnight and a 0.5 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic. Because of its younger viewers, FOX was hopeful about its delayed viewing, but apparently those numbers also weren't enough.
By and large, it seemed like Scream Queens' two seasons were well received by its dedicated fan base, and it closed out with a clean, happy ending that should serve as a satisfactory send-off. Plus Scream Queens was arguably the weakest in Murphy's TV empire, and fans will have no shortage of other Murphy-fronted projects to turn to. The mega producer has a spate of both hotly-anticipated and already thriving series, including American Horror Story, American Crime Story, Feud, Pose, and recently picked up procedural 911. If Murphy should decide he wants to revisit Scream Queens, that door would likely be open, but now seems like a suitable time to close that chapter.