Deception Canceled by NBC

According to Deadline, NBC has began notifying the projects that won’t be making it out of pilot stage, as well as series that won’t be coming back for another season. Its first cancellation is Deception, the midseason mystery that starred Meagan Good (Californication) as an undercover cop investigating the death of her childhood friend. The show, reportedly well-liked by the NBC brass, had a modest January premiere behind The Biggest Loser before quickly trending down and finding itself hovering around a 1.0 in the 18-49 demographic.

The only conceivable way that a weak performer like Deception could have snagged an unexpected renewal was if NBC was unhappy with their drama development. By the halfway point of its run, it had lost nearly all of the (soft) buzz it had upon its debut and was pulling in numbers lower than that of Friday staple Grimm, so its cancellation has been pretty certain for quite some time. Still, it’s hard not to be a tiny bit disappointed, seeing as how while the identity of Vivian Bowers’ killer was revealed in the series finale, their motive was still obscure. There are certain reasons that one could think of as to why they did what they did, but given how the show found itself creatively by the end of its run, it would have been much more pleasurable to see those played out on screen.

In addition to Good, Deception starred Tate Donovan (Damages), Victor Garber (Alias), Wes Brown (Hart of Dixie), Ella Rae Peck (Young Adult), and Laz Alonso (Avatar).

Deception wrapped its run on March 18th. You can check out a recap of the series finale here.

Do you think that NBC made the right decision in cancelling Deception? Was there any way that the show could have been a success? Why do you think Vivian’s killer did what they did?