Jeremy Piven is a pretty big name on the small screen thanks to his years on Entourage, and he made his way to network TV in primetime this fall thanks to a brand new series on CBS. Wisdom of the Crowd starred Piven as a tech billionaire who sold his company in order to launch a bold initiative to fight crime via crowdsourcing. Unfortunately for any fans of the show, it just got some bad news from CBS. Wisdom of the Crowd has been cancelled.
Wisdom of the Crowd originally landed an order for a 13-episode first season. A big question was whether CBS would give a back order for more episodes or let the show simply come to an end after the first 13. With production on the original batch of episodes set to conclude in the middle of December, the decision not to move forward with more episodes and a second season comes pretty late in the game. Deadline reports that CBS had ordered an additional three scripts in order to keep the writers room open before the big decision was made.
Nine of the episodes have already aired, and the remaining four are reportedly going to air in the show's regular Sunday time slot at 8 p.m. ET. It's possible that the remaining episodes will be pulled, as has happened with other series to be cancelled before finishing their runs, but we'll have to wait and see. For the sake of any fans who have already been hooked over just nine episodes, we have to hope that Episode 13 doesn't end on a killer cliffhanger.
The cancellation of Wisdom of the Crowd doesn't come as a huge surprise. The series was not exactly a hit with critics, and the ratings haven't been especially fabulous for CBS. In Live+Same day calculations, Wisdom of the Crowd is averaging 7.39 million viewers and an 0.96 rating in the key 18-49 age demographic. While those aren't terrible numbers, they're also not necessarily high enough to outweigh other negative factors that might impact the future of a series.
In the case of Wisdom of the Crowd, star Jeremy Piven has recently been accused of sexual harassment and even assault by a number of women from over the years of his career. CBS launched an investigation into the allegations, and it's entirely possible that they played a large part in the decision to cancel Wisdom of the Crowd after one short season. If so, Wisdom of the Crowd is only the latest series to be seriously impacted by harassment allegations against a star. The future of former Netflix juggernaut House of Cards is uncertain after accusations against Kevin Spacey, for one. Jeffrey Tambor left Amazon's Transparent after allegations as well.
As of now, you can catch the remaining episodes of Wisdom of the Crowd on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. For the other shows to get the axe over the past year, take a look at our list of 2017 TV cancellations. Our midseason TV guide can let you know when your favorite shows will be back int he new year.
