CBS goes Gothic, cancels Extant

Extant has been cancelled after two seasons

US network CBS has given a straight-to-series order to a murder mystery from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, but has cancelled its summer sci-fi series Extant after two seasons.

CBS has ordered 13 episodes of American Gothic, coproduced by Amblin and CBS Television Studios, for a 2016 broadcast.

The show centres on a prominent Boston family attempting to redefine itself in the wake of a chilling discovery that links their recently deceased patriarch to a string of murders spanning decades.

Corinne Brinkerhoff (The Good Wife, Jane the Virgin) has created the series and will exec produce along with Amblin Television’s Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank and Full Fathom Five’s James Frey.

The show will be distributed domestically by CBS Television Distribution and worldwide by CBS Studios International.

Meanwhile, CBS has pulled the plug on Halle Berry-starring series Extant after two runs.

The show made headlines last year when online retail giant Amazon struck a deal with CBS allowing it to stream the series just four days after broadcast on TV.

“Extant played an important role in expanding CBS’s line-up of original scripted programming in the summer,” said Glenn Geller, president of CBS Entertainment.

“We are proud of the show’s success on the network, as well as its popularity on Amazon Prime Video. We also want to thank the incomparable Halle Berry for her commitment and support for the series and look forward to working with her on our next project together.”

The network is sticking with the Oscar-winning actress with development starting on a new legal drama titled Legalease, which Berry will exec produce.

Last month, CBS decided not to renew Under the Dome, its groundbreaking adaptation of a Stephen King novel, beyond its current third season.