ABC Series Could Potentially Be Revived at IMDb TV Following Cancellation

One canceled ABC series could be coming back on a new home. According to Deadline, there is an [...]

By Brian Jones

One canceled ABC series could be coming back on a new home. According to Deadline, there is an agreement between IMDb TV and ABC to possibly bring back Rebel for a second season. However, it all depends on how the first season of the series does on the platform.

Rebel was canceled by ABC in May after five episodes into Season 1. The show, which stars, Katey Sagal, is inspired by the life of Erin Brockovich. Sagal plays Annie "Rebel" Bello who is a legal advocate who cares about the causes she fights hard for the people she cares about. Rebel is created by Krista Vernoff who is best known for running the ABC series Grey's Anatomy and the spinoff Station 19.

When Sagal learned the news of Rebel being canceled. She went to Instagram to share her reaction. "The abrupt announcement that there would be no season 2 based on the response from our airings came a shock and a heartbreak," Sagal wrote in an Instagram post. "Things take time to catch on. Rebel tells the story of a woman who speaks up for what is right, the show has heart and purpose, funny and tears, and we, the cast, are all scratching our heads at the reversal of support from ABC."

Shortly after the announcement, ABC boss Craig Erwich explained the decision."[Rebel creator] Krista Vernoff is brilliant," Erwich began. "She's a vital partner to us and part of the Disney family. She created something very special there. Given the show and given our partnership with Krista, we gave it a really big launch. We focused a lot of our efforts across the entire company in telling people about this show and unfortunately, the audience didn't amass the way it needed to. We tried to give the decision and the show every benefit of the doubt, but ultimately we just couldn't find a path forward."

Erwich also explained why Rebel was canceled after just five episodes. "It was a very carefully considered decision and one we tried to be methodical about," he said. "Part of the process was examining the behavior in terms of on-demand viewing and catch up. How is it performing days after its performance on multiplatform viewing? And there was just not a trend there toward continuing to build the audience. Ultimately that's what led to a very difficult decision."

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