Following tepid-to-hostile reviews, lackluster ratings, and an unceremonious move to Friday nights, The CW has decided to stop living in a fantasy world where it airs a popular-to-the-point-of-dangerous procedural thriller Cult, closing the door to that fantasy by canceling the real Cult. The twisty conspiracy series has been pulled from the network’s schedule and replaced with repeats of Oh Sit! and The Carrie Diaries, the type of move that might incite horrifying violence on the part of Cult fans—if such people existed and were not simply the invention of the television series Cult.
Star Matt Davis, a flesh-and-blood actor and not a character dreamed up by Cult creator Rockne O’Bannon, responded to the news via his Twitter alter ego, @ErnestoRiley, further couching the development in elliptical language a made-up Cult following would’ve eaten up. “Good news Cult fans!” the sarcastic tweet begins, “Cult has been renewed for the next ten season due to its brilliant marketing campaign! Good job everyone”—thus requiring viewers to suss out whether or not Davis-as-Riley is referring to actual marketing efforts or advertisements within the show. He may also be using the term “everyone” to refer to the denizens of the Cult universe, rather than the real-life American viewing audience that was largely unaware Cult ever existed.