Peacock Cancels Another Show After 1 Season

NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service continues to struggle at creating buzz-worthy shows. The streamer canceled another series after just one season. The Lost Symbol, an adaptation of Dan Brown’s 2009 novel, got the ax on Monday.

“We were so proud to bring this action-packed mystery thriller to our members and enjoyed watching this compelling series unfold with a satisfying, complete story,” Peacock said in a statement to Deadline. “We’re grateful to Dan Dworkin, Jay Beattie, Dan Brown, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard along with CBS Studios, Imagine Television, and UTV for bringing this international bestselling novel to life.”

The Lost Symbol began life as one of the movies Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks planned to make in their Robert Langdon franchise. After they decided to adapt Inferno instead, the project was moved to television. It was first titled Langdon since it would be a prequel to the movie series. In 2020, a pilot was produced for NBC, but NBCUniversal opted to move the show to Peacock with a 10-episode series order. NBC aired the pilot anyway on Nov. 8, while new episodes were released on Peacock Thursdays between Sept. 16 and Nov. 18, 2021.

Ashley Zuckerman, who starred in Netflix’s three Fear Street movies, played Robert Langdon, the symbology professor created by Brown. Eddie Izzard, Valorie Curry, Beau Knapp, Rick Gonzalez, and Sumalee Montano made up the main cast. The plot involved Langdon getting hired by the CIA to help solve deadly puzzles after his mentor (Izzard) goes missing. The show’s 10 episodes will remain on Peacock.

Peacock has not had much success with original shows. Even the highly-anticipated Punky Brewster revival was canceled after just one season. The show featured Soleil Moon Frye reprising her role, and most of her original co-stars returned. Brave New World, a series based on Aldous Huxley’s novel, also only lasted one season. A.P. Bio, which originally aired on NBC, was also canceled after its first season on Peacock.

The streamer handed out a couple of renewals recently. Girls5Eva, a series co-created by Tina Fey about the reunion of a ’90s one-hit wonder girl group, nabbed a second season last summer. Saved by the Bell, the latest incarnation of the franchise started by the 1989-1993 series, also earned a second season in November 2021.