(Photo: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)
Ben and his team have run out of time. NBC has cancelled Quantum Leap, so viewers won’t be seeing a third season. The second season of 13 episodes finished airing in February.
A sci-fi series, the Quantum Leap TV show is a sequel to the 1989-93 series of the same name. This incarnation stars Raymond Lee, Caitlin Bassett, Ernie Hudson, Mason Alexander Park, Nanrisa Lee, Eliza Taylor, and Peter Gadiot. Led by physicist Ben Song (Lee), a new team has been assembled to restart the Quantum Leap project. When Ben makes an unauthorized leap into the past, the team is left behind to solve the mystery of why he did it. At Ben’s side throughout his leaps is Addison (Bassett), who appears in the form of a hologram only Ben can see and hear. At the helm of the highly confidential operation is career military man Herbert “Magic” Williams (Hudson). The rest of the team includes Ian Wright (Park) and Jenn Chou (Lee). As Ben leaps from life to life, putting right what once went wrong, the team works to solve the mysteries of his leaps and bring him home before Ben is potentially lost forever.
Airing on Wednesday nights, the second season of Quantum Leap averaged a 0.25 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 2.41 million viewers. Compared to season one, that’s down by 25% in the demo and down by 3% in viewership in the live+same day ratings (includes DVR playback through 3:00 AM). It’s one of NBC’s lowest-rated series of the season.
“When we got the early renewal for season two, we knew we were not going to end it on a cliffhanger,” co-showrunner Dean Georgaris told Deadline earlier this year. “We were going to end it on the first scene from season three, and we’re going to end it with the two characters together, but in a way that you never expected. And that sort of says to the audience, ‘look at all the great places we can go.’ So if it feels like a completion for audiences, that’s wonderful. It is a completion of part of the journey, but I think for us, it serves as the launch for the rest of the journey.”
Lee and Bassett posted about the cancellation via Instagram.
What do you think? Did you enjoy watching the new Quantum Leap series? Are you disappointed that this NBC show wasn’t renewed for a third season?