If you were a fan of HBO's new drama, Vinyl, we've got some bad news for you. The music industry show has been cancelled and will not return for a second season.
News of the cancellation came down today courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter. The statement released to the outlet by HBO noted that the network had a hard time coming to the decision to stop production on Vinyl and that the powers that be appreciated the hard work of the creative team behind the project. The move is a bit of a surprise, considering that the series had actually already been renewed after the premiere in February. With original showrunner Terence Winter stepping down from the drama in early April, though, and being replaced with series executive producer Scott Z. Burns, things began to look less sure for the drama.
The network has also been experiencing something of a shakeup, with a new HBO programming head taking over earlier this year. HBO has also had a string of false starts or just plain failures with shows in the recent past. Westworld was delayed twice and was originally eyed for a fall 2015 release, but is now on tap for October of this year. Two series from David Fincher that were picked up had to be let go before production began, while a Lewis & Clark mini-series was also scrapped. Shows The Brink and Luck were also cancelled after just one season.
Also, Vinyl wasn't exactly a breakout hit for HBO. The long-in-the-works show, which was also executive produced by Martin Scorsese and Rollings Stones frontman Mick Jagger, only netted 760,000 viewers for live plus same day viewers for the two hour premiere. The show was also really expensive; the first season, which only had 10 episodes, is rumored to have cost $100 million to produce.
Vinyl focused on 1970s record executive Richie Finestra (Bobby Cannavale), who's trying to save his struggling record label by selling it to a German company, with an impending distribution rights deal with Led Zeppelin as part of the deal. When an encounter with the lead singer goes south, though, it looks like that deal might be in jeopardy, which would tank the company. Vinyl also starred Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano and Lena Olin.
Sources to The Hollywood Reporter believe that the cancellation is likely part of a move to free up programming for the new head to put his stamp on HBO without any struggling shows to worry about. When executives begin work at new networks it's not uncommon for them to champion certain shows in the hopes of being credited as the person who brought a big hit to the fore of programming, so that thinking makes a lot of sense.
So, if Vinyl was your drama of choice on HBO, you'll have to do without new episodes from now on.
