'Pitch' on Fox Cancelled Due to Low Viewership Despite Stable Ratings
Baseball drama series "Pitch" has been canceled by Fox after just one season. The cancellation didn't come as a surprise for the showrunners and cast members of the show, and they took to social media to break the unfortunate news to "Pitch" fans.
"Pitch" followed the struggles of Ginny Baker, a young pitcher who defied convention as she became the first woman to play in major league baseball. The show, while warmly received by critics, did not find much success in gathering an audience. "Pitch" averaged 4.7 million viewers, with just 1.4 million of those in the vital 18–49 year old demographic, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Kevin Falls, the executive producer for the baseball series, posted on Twitter on Tuesday, May 2, to announce the bad news to fans of the show.
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Falls also expressed gratitude for the support of fans, posting another tweet to say: "Thank you to our faithful fans for trying so hard to save us."
Dan Lauria, who played team manager Al Luongo on the show, posted on Facebook to announce the unfortunate news. "Hello Gang, Pitch is officially no more. Fox, in their infinite, but not so wise wisdom, has decided to cancel PITCH," Lauria announced.
Lauria went on to explain that he was hopeful after "Thursday Night Football" has been canceled by the network, a move that could have freed up a new time slot for "Pitch." As the weeks went by without news of a renewal, however, his hopes that the baseball series will get the nod for a second season dimmed.
Gary Newman, Chief Executive Officer of Fox, gave glowing praise to the show earlier this year, despite its small audience. "Dan and his team did a great job. We'd love to have seen a bigger audience, but it had a loyal core fan base, and there was a lot of delayed viewing. The show is specific; it's about something." Newman said, as quoted by Deadline.
