A&E cancels The Returned, definitively distinguishing it from its French counterpart
Look, we like to have fun here at Newswire, because passing along the day’s entertainment news can grow a bit monotonous. In the past year and change, a lot of that fun has been had at the expense of The Returned, A&E’s English-language remake of the fantastic Sundance import The Returned (known as Les Revenants in its native France). Like the mysteriously revived living corpses at the show’s center, it seemed as though fate was set against The Returned from the start: Not only did it have to live in the shadow of its older, more experienced Francophone twin, but its arrival was heralded by the similarly themed ABC show Resurrection, which was itself based on an unrelated-to-Les Revenants novel called The Returned—and perversely opened with an episode titled “The Returned.” It all seemed like a joke on the easily confused American viewing public, a football (not a football) The A.V. Club was all too eager to run with.
Well, now you can point to a distinct difference between The Returned (2012) and The Returned (2015)—beyond country of origin, lack of subtitles, and the presence of Mary Elizabeth Winstead—because one of those series has been canceled, while the other waits on a second season. Variety reports that A&E has finally found a way to put those damned returned to sleep: The network isn’t renewing its take on the concept, which, after the first three days of DVR viewing were factored in, was averaging 1.8 million viewers and a 0.7 rating among viewers under 50.
Compare those numbers to the ratings and viewership garnered by the most recent season of The Returned’s Monday-night companion, Bates Motel—3 million viewers overall, 1.3 18-49 rating—and you can tell why A&E opted to order two more seasons of that show. There’s also the matter of no one ever getting Norman Bates confused for another deranged killer with an Oedipal complex. It’s not like the guy has inspired an entire genre of characters in that vein.