Here Are The Odds That 'Salvation' Season 2 Happens

In the world of TV obsessives, nothing is worse than falling in love with a new show only to have it disappear after just a single season. Often, TV dramas that air during the summer are particularly vulnerable to cancellation, given the traditionally smaller audience. But will CBS show Salvation return for Season 2? And, if so, when should fans expect the follow up to the show's first season? Usually, by the end of a show's original run of episodes, it's pretty clear whether or not a series has a good chance of coming back for more, but, in this case, CBS has not announced anything, either positive or negative, about Salvation's future. That could mean the network is just waiting for a better moment to announce its upcoming schedule or still weighing whether or not Salvation will return.

Unfortunately, according to Variety, Salvation's ratings were low, dipping to just a slight 0.5 and 0.4 million 18-49 viewers for its two back-to-back episodes on Aug. 2, and Variety reported that Salvation "set two new lows in both key ratings measures with back-to-back episodes airing on Wednesday night," according to Nielsen data. Granted, because of Big Brother's comparatively strong 1.9 million viewers between 18-49, CBS still won the night overall, but on a network usually known for having excellent ratings, a drama that made negative headlines because of its low viewership might be cancelled without a second thought. And before the Salvation series premiere, CBS' entertainment president Glenn Geller called it a "summer event series" in a statement, so it's also possible that the network has always considered this a short-lived project.

But the series isn't a lost cause, just like humanity on the show (so the fans hope, at least). According to Deadline, Amazon acquired the exclusive rights to stream Salvation, just a few days after each episode airs. "It continues to be a great business model for year-round programming on the network, as well as exclusive content for Amazon Video subscribers," CBS' Scott Koondel said. That deal might help Salvation stay alive, because as Deadline explained, "The short-window streaming deal ... lowered the risk for CBS’ summer dramas ... which can break even and even turn a profit regardless of their ratings performance on the network."

But that's not the only reason to hope for more Salvation. There's also the show's story, which takes advantage of the general apocalyptic mood right now in order to posit the question: What would you do if an asteroid was heading straight towards Earth? If you were a character on Salvation, of course, you'd attempt to save the world, and while the writers have remained intensely tight-lipped about the show's and the characters' future, Salvation Season 2 could take the series in a whole new direction. Perhaps, what happens after the apocalypse is narrowly avoided? Certainly, some of the show's stars, like Jennifer Finnigan, seem excited at the idea of more.

Audiences could really use some smart, optimistic science fiction right now to reassure us that the everything is going to be OK. Now, in Salvation, things aren't going too well for humans at the moment — they may, in fact, wind up extinct by the end of the season — but at its core, any sci-fi series tries to find the hope and potential in humanity and look for solutions to the same problems that make 2017 feel so apocalyptic, even without an enormous asteroid hurtling towards Earth. If Salvation is able to return for Season 2, with or without the space rock and the doomsday clock, maybe it can overcome a tough, low-rated debut to give out a little inspiration in a followup season.