Why ‘Ghosted’ Fans Think The Supernatural Sitcom Deserved A Better Shot

While some fans took to Ghosted's unique mix of sci-fi procedural and workplace comedy, it seems that the show's unique conceit was not enough to keep it from being cancelled. Ghosted will not be returning for a second season according to Deadline, and fans are mourning the loss of the show ahead of its series finale on July 22.

The show may not have been the hit with audiences that its network, Fox, was hoping for — but there are a few reasons for that. The show's schedule was odd. Nine episodes aired in the fall between October 2017 and January 2018, but then the series took a six-month break. The rest of Season 1, helmed by a new showrunner, began airing in June 2018. Between the two halves of Season 1, original showrunner Kevin Etten was replaced by Paul Lieberstein of The Office, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The shift in showrunners marked a noticeable change between the front half of the season and the rest. The latter half eschewed the case-of-the-week structure that Ghosted relied on at first, instead focusing on office culture of The Bureau Underground. Despite getting a new direction, however, the change wasn't enough to convince Fox to keep the series as part of its roster. However, it seems like the network wasn't interested in keeping any of its comedies, as the network cancelled a large number of shows at the end of the 2017-2018 television season, including all of their live-action comedic programming.

Fans have taken to Twitter to mourn the loss of Ghosted, remembering a show that seemed to be a victim of circumstance more than anything else.

The chance for Ghosted to grow an audience may have been bogged down by an unconventional release, some fans also took umbrage with the show's mid-season shifts in direction. For the many fans that enthusiastically supported the show and are mourning its loss, there are others who claim that the characters changed too much to fit the new direction. Others strongly preferred the show's case-of-the-week structure, when the show was more like a funny version of The X-Files and less like a sci-fi version of The Office. However, no matter what the fans thought of the show, it seems like viewership and fan response played a relatively minor role in Fox's decision to cancel the show.

Fox as a network seems to be rebranding their comedic voice, as they've done away with their marquee live-action comedies Last Man On Earth, The Mick, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. B99 was famously brought back by NBC in under 24 hours, but there's no indication that any of Fox's other lost comedies — including Ghosted — are going to be rescued by any other networks. The show could be brought back by a streaming platform like Netflix or Hulu, the last of which picked up The Mindy Project after it was cancelled by Fox, but it looks like the first season finale of Ghosted will truly be the series finale.

The show's sudden ending is especially disappointing by the fact that the show may never get to resolve some of its most interesting concepts, specifically providing more information regarding the the multiverse and how accurate Max (Adam Scott) was, and whether or not Max would be able to reunite with the wife he once knew through the multiverse.

Whether or not the show's July 22 finale will answer the show's lingering questions could have a huge effect on the fans who have followed the show throughout its uneven lifespan. And they will sadly never know what could have been, had the show had a stronger direction.