‘Monarch’ Cancelled After One Season!!

The musical drama series Monarch has been cancelled after its first season. Amongst other series, Fox has not renewed the series for a second season, bringing an end to the Roman’s country music dynasty.

Despite being Fox’s first wholly-owned scripted series, which it ordered back in May 2021, the series was not the breakout country music soap they had hoped for. Tuesday night’s season closer, titled ‘The Last Dance,’ marked the end of the Melissa London Hilfers-created series.

Monarch’s cancellation comes despite decent ratings for its premiere. The series’ September premiere was Fox’s most-watched fall scripted debut in three years, scoring a 0.8 for the adults 18-49 audience for Live+Same Day ratings and garnering 3.8 million total viewers. However, subsequent episodes did not fair as well, with the series averaging a 0.3/3 L7 (up 50% from Live+ Same Day viewers), and just 4.1 million multiplatform viewers (up 149% from Live+ Same Day viewership).

Monarch’s cancellation comes after several other shows were recently cut from Fox’s lineup. Over the year, Fox has not renewed several programs. Included in this list are The Big Leap (canned on the network after one season), Duncanville (three seasons), Our Kind of People (one season), and Pivoting (one season). Monarch is not the only first-year fall network show to have been axed recently, with CBS also pulling the plug on one of its dating shows back in October. The Real Love Boat was pulled midway, with the remainder of season one moving to Paramount+. As Monarch was ordered strictly for Fox Entertainment Studios and purposely designed to have a shorter run of eleven episodes, it is unlikely it will be renewed for a second season on another network.

Monarch tells the story of a multigenerational country music family striving to keep their dynasty alive whilst focusing on their individual career success. The series stars Susan Sarandon as Dottie Cantrell, the “Queen of Country Music” alongside onscreen husband Trace Adkins as Albie Roman, a legendary singer-songwriter known as the “Texas Truthteller.” The series also stars Anna Friel (Nicolette ‘Nicky’ Roman, a younger version of which is portrayed by Taegan Burns), Joshua Sasse (Luke Roman, a younger version of which is portrayed by Gavin Bedell), Beth Ditto (Georgina ‘Gigi’ Taylor-Roman, portrayed also by Elena Murray), Iñigo Pascual (Ace Grayson), Meagan Holder (Kayla Taylor-Roman), Emma Milani (Ana Phoenix), and Martha Higareda (Catt Phoenix). Executive producers for the show include Hilfers, Jon Feldman, Gail Berman, Hend Baghdady, and Jason Owen. Originally set to air in January this year, COVID-19 pushed the premiere to September.