Utopia Cancelled at Fox, Effective Immediately

For the 15 residents of Utopia, it’s the end of the world as they know it.

Fox on Sunday cancelled its big-budget “social experiment,” effective immediately (meaning last Friday’s episode was the series finale).

Utopia‘s live-streaming feeds will fade to black later today. A Fox insider tells TVLine that it’s “likely” viewers will get to see the show’s participants react to the cancellation before the plug is pulled.

UPDATE: It looks like we won’t be seeing the cast’s reactions, after all. Executive producer Jon Kroll on Sunday confirmed the series’ cancellation, followed by this note about the live streams:

The harsh reality of low ratings felled Utopia right out of the gate. The two-hour premiere in early September drew a disappointing 4.6 million viewers. By Episode 2, that number fell 46 percent to 2.5 million viewers.

In early October, Fox scaled the show back to one day a week — that day being Friday — ahead of schedule. The 1.6 million viewers it notched this past Friday apparently sealed the show’s fate.

Beginning Friday, Nov. 7, encores of Masterchef Junior will fill Utopia‘s Friday-at-8/7c timeslot.