Why did Cinemax cancel The Knick after two seasons? Reasons explored

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, The Knick, is a period medical drama created by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler. Featuring Clive Owen, Andre Holland, Eve Hewson, and others, the show is set in early twentieth century New York City. The show focuses on Dr. John W. Thackery (Owen) and the staff of a fictional Knickerbocker Hospital as they try to push past the limits of medical treatment and give way to modern medicine.

The show’s protagonist, Dr. John, is a highly talented surgeon who is addicted to cocaine and opium. While the series was a critical and commercial success and premiered on Cinemax, it only lasted for two seasons. The show ended with Thackery dying on the operating table while performing a surgery on himself. Soderbergh had planned to create a new story every two seasons for six seasons of The Knick. But the show was sadly cancelled by Cinemax for various reasons.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Soderbergh reveals the reasons for the cancellation of The Knick and how the arrival of Barry Jenkins is giving some hope for a third season.

Reasons for the cancellation of The Knick. Details explored

The interview reveals that there were several reasons for the cancellation of The Knick. Primarily, the show did not rebrand Cinemax for its original programming and failed to bring in new audiences for the channel. Further, when the show was considered by HBO for a revival, the budget was not available as The Knick is a period drama and is expensive to produce.

Soderbergh states that, “A couple of things, none of which were within our control. The show did not do for Cinemax what it was intended to do, which was to help rebrand and draw new eyeballs to the channel. It didn’t do badly, but it was clear at the end of the second season that it wasn’t doing what we wanted it to do for that channel…now it moves back to HBO [for consideration]…and they’ve already got their spend figured out, and it isn’t a small number to produce this show. So it just showed up at the wrong time at the wrong place…We didn’t have the juice to make it happen. It wasn’t anybody’s fault…all the timing and situations worked against us.”

What’s next for The Knick

The reasons for the cancellation of the show proves that rebranding a network for original programming is a risky task and can lead to good shows also getting cancelled. While HBO did not revive the show earlier, Soderbergh is hopeful that with Jenkins involved, the show will get a lifeline. Creators of the show, Amiel and Begler have even written a pilot for the next season and Andre Holland is set to return on the show. Soderbergh will continue to executively produce the show and he has also read the pilot.

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The show is available on HBO Max.

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