It’s time to say goodbye to the Ewings again as TNT has opted not to renew the revival drama series Dallas for a fourth season.
Dallas was cancelled by TNT late Friday evening roughly a week following a bombshell Season 3 finale that saw a main Ewing character meet their untimely demise. That character’s death might as well have been a metaphor for the series ultimate fate despite the final episode leaving several loose ends, including a cliffhanger.
The writing has been on the wall for Dallas dating back to Season 2 when star Larry Hagman, one of three stars including Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray from the original Dallas that returned for the new series to join the next generation of Ewings, passed away during production. The episode that buried J.R. Ewing spiked the ratings to 3.6 million viewers, but that was still a far cry from the roughly 7 million viewers that tuned in for the series premiere.
Season 3 was set up for failure by TNT when they moved to show from the summer to a much more competitive fall, and shifted it from Wednesday to Monday evenings. The Season 3 finale only drew 2.3 million viewers total viewers from two airings, with one million of those falling into the 25-54 demo.
Dallas does have a solid built-in fan base and brand so there’s still a possibility that another network, or even Netflix, might try to scoop it up for a fourth and final season that would be designed to bring closure to the remaining characters and plot lines. As of right now, the sun has set on Dallas for a second time.
