Doctor Odyssey Cancelled At ABC After One Season
Doctor Odyssey's ship has sailed: ABC has cancelled the medical drama after a single season.
The cast's options for a second season will not be picked up, according to our sister site Deadline, meaning that as of Monday they will be free to book other roles. Though not a formal cancellation, if ABC does eventually want Doc Od to return, producers would need to re-sign all lead actors to new deals.
Paris Barclay, who served as an executive producer and director on the series, seemingly confirmed the cancellation news in a tweet on Monday. "#DoctorOdyssey was a singular honor, w/a cast & crew I could only have hoped for. Thank you to all of them, [ABC], [Disney], & [Ryan Murphy] for the cruise of a lifetime," he wrote.
Doctor Odyssey Season 1 averaged 4.8 million weekly viewers (with delayed playback). Out of the six dramas that ABC aired this past TV season, it outdrew only Grey's in total viewers. (Back in September, TVLine readers gave the series premiere an average grade of "C+," with fewer than 70% planning to stay tuned.)
The modern-day Love Boat starred Joshua Jackson as Max Bankman, the onboard doctor of The Odyssey, a cruise ship helmed by Captain Massey (played by Miami Vice's Don Johnson). Dr. Max treated the ship's many medical emergencies alongside nurses Avery (Shining Girls' Phillipa Soo) and Tristan (The Gifted's Sean Teale), but things got messy after the group had a threesome, resulting in plenty of love triangle drama.
During the course of its freshman run, the Ryan Murphy series' glitzy look and pandemic origins prompted TVLine to develop the Fever Dream Theory, arguing that Max never recovered from COVID. As we theorized, The Odyssey wasn't a ship it all — it was Heaven, beckoning Max to "cross over" to the other side. Though said conspiracy was never explicitly confirmed, Jackson did reveal that they "had a similar theory operating on set."
TVLine's Renewal/Cancellation Scorecard has been updated to reflect the news.
Are you sad to see Doctor Odyssey drift out to sea? Hit the comments with your reaction to the cancellation news!