‘The Resident’ Canceled After 6 Seasons at Fox
Our time with the docs at Chastain is officially over.
Fox has canceled The Resident after six seasons. The news comes months after the Season 6 finale aired on January 17. (At the time, executive producer Andrew Chapman had told TV Insider he didn’t expect to know the medical drama’s future until April or May.)
Season 6 averaged a 0.5 L7 rating in Adults 18-49 (down 27 percent from a year ago) and 6.9 million total multiplatform viewers (down 12 percent). Compared to its first season in 2018, which ended up being its last (consisting of 13 episodes) was down 69 percent and 35 percent in the aforementioned rating and viewership.
Because they didn’t know if they’d be renewed, Chapman and creator Amy Holden Jones crafted the last episode of Season 6 to serve as a series finale. “[We] really thought hard about how we would construct storylines that would give closure to the season, but if it had to be a series finale, would give our audience and our fans some closure to the whole series, too,” Chapman explained.
Tom Griscom/FOX
“So thematically, that sense that Randolph Bell [Bruce Greenwood] went from [a] bad guy at the beginning of Season 1 to sort of an emeritus benefactor, a guy with real wisdom at the end of Season 6,” he continued.
That was also why Conrad (Matt Czuchry) and Billie (Jessica Sutton) said, “I love you,” the EP added. “If the season started with, ‘what’s going to happen in Conrad’s love life? Will he be with Cade [Kaley Ronayne] or Billie?’ First, he’s with Cade, but then it never quite settled, and now he’s with Billie, and it’s where he should be. That felt like it nailed both of those ideas. It nails the idea of the season and of the series,” he shared. “Also, Conrad’s relationship with Nic [Emily VanCamp] started the whole show, and we watched their evolution, and then we watched her give birth and then her death and how he deals with single parenthood and then begins to love again. That’s such a spine to this show. We felt like Billie and Conrad saying ‘I love you’ at the end was really a fitting wrap-up if this is the end of the series.”
And Season 7 would’ve likely opened with Devon (Manish Dayal) and Leela’s (Anuja Joshi) wedding, following his proposal in the finale, and possibly featured AJ’s (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) family life, not front and center and more with James (Ian Anthony Dale).
Plus, we would have seen “a growth of a family, Conrad, and Billie. The continuing growth of Ian [Andrew McCarthy] as a guy who struggles with addiction but becomes an important part of the hospital, and the hospital is partially built around a guy with this frailty,” Chapman revealed. “Kit Voss [Jane Leeves] as the badass CEO of the hospital but also the married partner of a man who no longer works there full-time and is exploring what life is outside of medicine. The classic Conrad work-family life divergence, which we think has played really well through the seasons, his constant caring and his evolution from cowboy to slightly more by-the-rules doctor. Who will take the place of that cowboy? Is it Devon? Could it be Ian? Could it be Cade?”
The cancellation of The Resident comes the same week that Fox ordered the medical drama Doc to series for the 2023-24 season. The network also recently made a script-to-series commitment to the drama Archie & Pete, with Jones writing and executive producing and Matt Nix executive producing.
With this news, that leaves the following Fox scripted shows’ futures still up in the air: dramas 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Lone Star, and Fantasy Island, and comedies Animal Control, Call Me Kat, and Welcome to Flatch. The network has already renewed The Cleaning Lady, Accused, Alert: Missing Persons Unit, The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, The Great North, and Family Guy for the 2023-2024 season.
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Ugh!! This was my favorite show and it had such an amazing cast with amazing chemistry. I looked forward to this show every week. I can't believe they would let this go! What a huge disappointment!! And even though they tried to tie everything up to serve as a series finale, it just didn't do the show justice. I wish a smarter network would pick it up and continue with their stories. 🙁
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The Resident was one of my favorite shows. What a mistake!!
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I think Fox has lost its collective mind! What a great show! I looked forward to seeing it every week. They better not cancel the 911’s too or Fox May lose me all together. Not happy.
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The Resident was awesome and if Fox cancels either 911 or both then fox will loose a die hard fan of fox
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Doc won't get equivalent to, let alone better ratings than The Resident. I doubt it'll make it past one season. Ratings aren't the problem here, money is. The Resident's third in viewership, behind 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star. It's eighth in demo, but four of the shows beating it out are animated shows.
According to TV Line: "At the time, a Resident insider told TVLine the series was “essentially done,” but a Fox rep maintained that an official decision had yet to be made on the show’s fate." FOX needs to explain why their rep lied about the show's fate for so long, when fans knew what was happening. The network handled this terribly.
FOX constantly promoted The Resident on social media, as if nothing had changed, when fans knew otherwise. What exactly did they get from that? They dismantled sets, before selling off assets (props, wardrobe, etc.) without telling Amy first. She was kept in the dark for months, with no word about cancellation, even though fans knew about the liquidation sale since early March. And, why did FOX wait so long to confirm The Resident's cancellation? None of it makes any sense.
The season finale works well as a perfect series finale. It shouldn't have to, but I'm glad Amy and Andrew wrote it that way. Still, I wanted to see Conrad/Billie's relationship grow as a family with Gigi, Bell teaching, Devon/Leela's wedding, AJ finding love again, and whether James/Cade's fling eventually turned into something serious. So much wasted potential.
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I wish NBC or CBS would pick it up it would be great for CBS Paramount Streaming there they don't care about ratings they just want people to pay and join and keep paying, I believe Paramount would be a good place for the resident.
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Agreed, and CBS hasn't had a medical show since Code Black. They tried with Good Sam, but it flopped hard.
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O
That was one of my favorite shows on Tuesday nights. Big mistake Fox.
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Maybe another network can save it or Streaming sites. It's a great and awesome show. It at least has 4 more seasons in it. Maybe people should start a #savetheresident hashtag pension.
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Can’t believe it. What a mistake. One of the best shows on tv. Guess they will take away the other couple of shows I watch on fox as well.
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The Resident was a great show. I never missed an episode. There were a lot of time line's they could have explored. I'm going to miss this show it was one of my favorites.
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The Resident was an awesome show I guess is will watch reruns. If ABC cancels 911 there's no need for the channel to exist. Wow what a bummer
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Stupid decision!! One of their best shows.
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Stupid mistake...I can't believe how unbelievably out of their minds they truly are. They have No real concept of what people really want to see obviously.
The pitch for the new drama is pretty much a half copy of another medical show that seems to barely be hanging on right now.
We don't need carbon copies of other medical shows. The Resident was Unique! It was Special! I think it's safe to say I could speak for most everyone
We all had a real heart connection to all the Crew....every individual who was a part of the acting Cast on the Resident..Old or New.
The Resident in very real way...
Family! Heart ❤️ 💙 💜 💖 💗
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The resident was my favorite show. We saw the characters grow as adults. Learn and change. Become better humans. It's a shame that such a positive program can be canceled.
I am constantly reminded that the best shows are the ones that get canceled, while "mindless entertainment", flourishes. It's too bad.
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I so so ENJOYED watching The Resident
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Great show enjoyed watching
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Once 21st Century Fox shareholders sold the company to Disney, they screwed FOX. 20th Television was covered by the sale, but the network wasn't. FOX became part of a new company called Fox Corporation. Now, they had to pay licensing fees for shows they previously owned. And since they needed a studio, it forced them to create Fox Entertainment in 2019. It's worked out well for Disney, but that's about it. FOX's streaming contracts with Hulu and Disney+ benefit Disney more than FOX.
Ever since, they've had to license most of their shows from outside studios. They pay licensing fees for almost everything. And since profit margins are so tight, some of FOX's top-rated shows of 2021-22 were almost cancelled. They aired five new scripted shows that season, and cancelled three of them. It's an impossible situation, since they're paying so many licensing fees. You'll never see another Bones (12 seasons).
This brings us to The Resident's cancellation. Contracts are up for renegotiation, meaning salary increases. FOX would also have to renew their licensing fee with Disney. It's more expensive to keep the show now. That makes it easier to cancel, despite the fact it's the third most watched show on the network. If FOX actually owned The Resident, this would be less of an issue. But, that hasn't been the case since season two.
They have to pay licensing fees for The Cleaning Lady, Alert, and Accused too. But since they're much younger, it's cheaper than paying Disney for The Resident.
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My uncle works as a marketing manager at Fox studio and he told me couple of weeks ago that it was axed because the new Fox Corporation is having to pay a lot of license money to have some of the older shows that's why Fox is trying to AX the older shows and start their own new ones, this all started with Disney and for awhile we will see older shows we love being slowly canceled over time I can say that 911 Lone Star cast has already been called in for contract extensions and pay increases according to my uncle no news currently on 911.
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It started with 21st Century Fox shareholders selling the company to Disney in 2019, which totally screwed FOX. 20th Television was covered by the sale, but the network wasn't. FOX lost their studio, became part of a new company called Fox Corporation, and Fox Entertainment was created to replace the loss of 20th Television. As a result, the network suddenly had to pay licensing fees for shows it previously owned. Ever since, they've had to license most of their lineup from outside studios.
A few examples:
The Cleaning Lady - Warner Bros. Television
Alert - Sony Pictures Television
Accused - Sony Pictures Television
Call Me Kat - Warner Bros. Television
Profit margins are so tight, every renewal is dependent on cost, since FOX pays so many licensing fees. Once 21st Century Fox liquidated their assets and sold them to Disney, the network was screwed.
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Boooo!!! Bring it back!!!!!! I was late starting this awesome show and very sad to see it come to an end. My heart is now forever broken😭💔
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It got canceled because no one wanted to see a great show become COMPLETELY political in the latest and ultimately and thankfully the last season. I really loved this show until the sixth season but they just couldn't help themselves from being political.
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Mine too!!!
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Very disappointing news.
Great cast, amazing chemistry and brilliant writing.
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NNNOOOOOOooooooo! 😭
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I will definitely miss this show. But they can cancel the Bialik show anytime now. She overactive, and it jumped the shark when she and Max became a couple. Total mismatch. The less we see of her the better. I can barely watch Jeopardy anymore when she is hosting.
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When they did the time jump, I stopped watching even though I liked most of the characters. Dispointed Conrad ended up with Billie.
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They were drawn to each other and Billie was his wife's best friend and in one show she said if anything ever happened to me she would be a catch.
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