Insert the comical, but applicable, record scratch noise here. HBO has taken back their decision to renew freshman series Vinyl for a second season. According to The Hollywood Reporter, after consideration and the departure of the showrunner, HBO has decided to not move forward with Vinyl for season 2.
Though Vinyl was previously announced to be renewed for season 2 after just 1 episode had aired, now HBO has reversed the decision. In a statement, HBO said, “After careful consideration, we have decided not to proceed with a second season of Vinyl. Obviously, this was not an easy decision. We have enormous respect for the creative team and cast for their hard work and passion on this project.”
The news is unexpected but not wholly unsurprising for HBO. Vinyl was not only a very expensive series to produce, it was not received well by critics and the ratings were very low even by HBO’s standards. There were plans to reboot the series in the hypothetical season 2, to garner more interest, but those obviously will not come to pass now.
Vinyl is not the first series that HBO has cancelled after ordering a second season. The same thing happened with the similarly critically panned comedy, The Brink. There is also the infamous example of horse racing drama Luck being canceled after several horses died on set filming season 2.
