‘Whiskey Cavalier’ Canceled by ABC After Only 1 Season

ABC officially canceled Whiskey Cavalier on Sunday after just one shortened season.

Executive producer Bill Lawrence announced that Whiskey Cavalier was canceled on Sunday, confirming many fans’ fears. The show premiered late in the season and remained low in the ratings, in spite of its all-star cast and big action sequences. ABC put a lot of advertising resources behind Whiskey Cavalier, but it still pulled the plug when the show fell short.

“#WhiskeyCavalier is unfortunately over,” Lawrence wrote. “I actually did have an investment in the show and the people. I’m sad. I’m grateful for the chance.”

Whiskey Cavalier brought together Scandal alum Scott Foley and The Walking Dead alum Lauren Cohan for an action-comedy that seemed to check all the right boxes. ABC threw the full weight of its advertising power behind the show, even going so far as to air a special premiere of the pilot immediately following the Oscars, but none of it got the series up to the right Nielsen ratings.

In the end, the timing of the premiere may well have been what doomed the show. Whiskey Cavalier debuted in February, late even for a spring season show. It never quite caught up to the other regular season programming, ultimately ending the season as ABC’s third lowest-rated hour-long drama of the year, according to a report by TV Line.

Still, for those who did watch, the show was a joy. Whiskey Cavalier followed Foley as a sensitive, heart-on-his-sleeve FBI agent who had recently gone through a bad break-up. He was forced to team up with Cohan as a fiery CIA agent going after the same target, Edgar Standish — played by fellow Walking Dead alum Tyler James Williams.

In the end, all three formed an inter-departmental squad that had all the right skills but none of the emotional chemistry for a great team, leading to high jinks in spades.

In spite of the premise and the press push, ratings have fallen on three out of the show’s eleven weeks so far, ABC could not take it anymore. This week’s episode fell to a total of 2.43 million viewers, down from 2.72 the previous week. With two more weeks to go, it will be a bittersweet finale for fans of the show.

The announcement comes at the same time as many other big announcements from ABC. The network dropped some big renewals last week, with almost every show now accounted for. The 2019-2020 TV season is taking shape, but sadly Whiskey Cavalier will be out of the picture.

Whiskey Cavalier airs on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.