The Resident Was Just Canceled On Fox And Fans Are Devastated
The Resident has been canceled by Fox after six seasons.
Medical dramas seem to be a mainstay of American television, with Shonda Rhime’s Grey’s Anatomy running since the early 2000s for a whopping 19 seasons, and cult favorite medical comedy Scrubs running for nine seasons between its tenure on NBC and later ABC from 2001-2010. Unfortunately, not all medical dramas get the same long run time. According to an article from Deadline, Fox’s medical drama The Resident has been canceled after six seasons.
The Resident ended its sixth season just over three months ago. The series turned a critical lens to the healthcare industry and followed the staff of Chastain Park Memorial Hospital as they navigated the often difficult decisions asked of healthcare professionals. It had been one of Fox’s most successful medical dramas since House.
Part of the problem with The Resident was that it wasn’t performing as well as in previous seasons. Its sixth season averaged about 6.9 million viewers per episode after seven days of delayed viewing, down 12 percent from the previous season and a concerning 35 percent from season one. Just as telling, its L7 viewership in the 18-49 demographic averaged a .5 rating, down 27 percent compared to the previous season and 69 percent compared to the first season.
Another issue was that The Resident was one of the few dramas left over from when 20th Television was part of the 21st Century Fox family. Fox and Disney had since closed a $71 billion deal to sell the studio and several cable assets to Disney in 2019. Outside of the procedural drama 9-1-1 and its spinoff 9-1-1: Lone Star, The Resident had been the only drama airing on the network this season that Fox Entertainment didn’t have a stake in.
Fans of the series took to social media to mourn the show’s cancelation. One fan noted how much they will miss the character Kit Voss, while another shared their grief through photos of everyone’s favorite couple on the show that finally came together: Conrad Hawkins and Billie Sutton.
Fox recently ordered the medical drama Doc, a U.S. adaptation of an Italian medical drama series, to premiere in 2023. The series focuses on a doctor who after a successful career in medicine suffers a brain injury that results in her losing eight years of her memory. Doc will be co-produced by Fox Entertainment and Sony Pictures TV.
Season six of The Resident had recently concluded, and many viewers felt that it had many qualities of a series finale. Similarly to the previous season, writers had to write the finale without knowing if the series would be renewed for the next, and have related previously that this factors into how they wrote their finales for both seasons. Season six ended on January 16, 2023, with its 107th episode, “All Hands On Deck,” wrapping a number of loose ends from the conflicts of the season and ending on a relatively positive note for many of the core characters.
The Resident starred Matt Czuchry alongside a cast that included Marvel star Emily VanCamp, Jessica Lucas, Andrew McCarthy, Manish Dayal, Anuja Joshi, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Tasso Feldman, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and Bruce Greenwood, among others over the course of its six seasons. It was co-created by Roshan Sethi, Hayley Schore, and Amy Holden Jones, who also executive produced along with showrunner Andrew Chapman, Rob Corn, Oly Obst, Antoine Fuqua, Marc Halsey, Joy Gregory, and Czuchry.
With decreasing viewership and little value for Fox Entertainment, it seems like it was a matter of numbers for The Resident and its fans.
