Amazon Cancels ‘Étoile’ Despite Previously Ordering A Season 2

Some cancellations are more brutal than others, and that’s what we’ve just seen with what Amazon Prime Video just did to Étoile.

The ballet-based show was cancelled after one season, but this was despite ordering two seasons before it was released. Despite an order like that, it’s not guaranteed that it produces both seasons and well, here we are, a case of this going badly wrong.

Étoile was made by Amy Sherman-Palladino, who was behind the famed Gilmore Girls and Amazon darling The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. This is also her second foray into a dance show after Bunheads, but she just can’t make it happen.

It’s true that Étoile made it to #1 on Amazon Prime Video’s top 10 list, but it didn’t stay there long, and the context of its overall viewership wasn’t great. The show was quickly displaced by Reacher, months after its third season had ended, and The Wheel of Time which also ended up cancelled.

The end result was not enough viewership for the cost of the show, so despite the relationship with the creator, decent enough audience scores, and at least a brief #1 charting, it didn’t survive closer inspection.

The “rethinking” of series plans is interesting, as Deadline brings up The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Amazon’s enormously budgeted fantasy series that lost half its viewership between seasons 1 and 2. Previously, it was thought that the show was guaranteed to run for five seasons due to a deal with the Tolkien estate, but there are intermediating circumstances that can alter plans. Rings of Power, for instance, was not officially renewed for months and months when season 3 was supposedly going to be a guarantee initially. And it might be the case that depending on its performance, season 3 could be its last.

There have been a few hard cuts at Amazon lately, with another being the aforementioned Wheel of Time, which was just getting really good three seasons in. But Étoile didn’t even get that long, and despite positive vibes about the series, it wasn’t allowed to attempt another run.

At present, it doesn’t seem like Amy Sherman-Palladino has any upcoming projects in the works, as surely the assumption was that Étoile would continue. She does still have an overall deal with Amazon, but where this goes from here after this latest, unfortunate turn is unclear.

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