‘Tom Swift’ Canceled by The CW After One Season
Tom Swift, The CW’s Nancy Drew spin-off series, has been canceled by the network after airing only five episodes in its first season.
Deadline exclusively reported the news and shared that CBS Studios plans to shop the series elsewhere.
The series, a spin-off of Nancy Drew, is about a billionaire inventor named Tom Swift. He gets wrapped up in a world of sci-fi conspiracy and phenomena after his father mysteriously and unexpectedly disappears.
Tom Swift premiered on May 31, 2022, after Nancy Drew Season 2 Episode 15, “The Celestial Visitor,” served as a backdoor pilot for the series — creating much buzz and fanfare.
The show features a predominantly Black cast, with Tian Richards as the lead in the titular role.
Richards spoke about Tom Swift‘s diversity in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “The show is so many different intersections and we get to talk about the queer experience, what it’s like to actually exist and not just to be entering that space by way of coming out or coming to terms with ourselves,” Richards said.
“And for it to be Juneteenth this month and with just how much Black excellence is highlighted in the show, and that it shows us freely in all spaces and fully, I love that the most,” Richards added.
Richards is the only cast member to have been introduced previously on Nancy Drew, with the rest of the cast being announced once the series was officially picked up in August.
Ashleigh Murray, a The CW veteran who previously starred as Josie McCoy in Riverdale, stars alongside Richards as Tom Swift’s best friend Zenzi.
According to Deadline, The CW has stated that they enjoy the show creatively. The report cited lower ratings as a possible reason for the cancellation.
To that effect, TVLine shared that “Tom Swift has averaged 360,000 total viewers and barely a 0.1 demo rating (in Live+Same Day numbers)” over the course of its first five episode.
The series comes from CBS Studios and Fake Empire and was co-created by Melinda Hsu Taylor and Noga Landau who also worked on Nancy Drew. Cameron Johnson, who previously wrote for Fox’s hit series Empire, also serves as an executive producer.
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Tom Swift airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
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Samantha Graves
Samantha is an avid pop-culture enthusiast who arguably watches too much TV and movies and can often be found on Twitter gushing about her favourite things. She’s #TeamJess, a Lucas and Peyton defender, and an all-around Hollywood fanatic. She also has a podcast (Enter The Fangirls).