Season 5 of the Ryan Eggold-starring drama, which begins in the fall, will also be the show’s shortest, with just 13 episodes to wrap up the story of Dr. Max Goodwin and his many battles against hospital bureaucracy. This will take its run to just under 90 episodes.
As to why the show is ending, an Instagram live from Tyler Labine, who plays Dr. Iggy Frome, offers some clues while a look at the data provides more information.
Why Is ‘New Amsterdam’ Canceled?
When deciding whether or not to renew a show, a network has to weigh how much it costs with how popular it is—and obviously, more expensive shows need to be more popular to justify their continued existence.
Clearly, the ratings of New Amsterdam had fallen to a point where NBC was not getting enough viewers for its investment. This is despite it still being a solid ratings performer, with the current season drawing in an average of 7 million people an episode across all platforms, according to Deadline.
This does make it one of the less popular NBC dramas, however. Per TVSeriesFinale, the show ranks ninth in total viewers, way behind big hitters such as This Is Us and Chicago Fire. Its ratings also pale in comparison to those of NBC’s other hospital show Chicago Med, which gets double the linear viewers that New Amsterdam does.
It is known to be a costly show to produce, especially as COVID-related health and safety measures make TV more expensive to make in general. This was reported by Deadline, in a piece that spoke of the “challenging economics” of making the show viable when ratings were falling.
Its cost was also discussed by Labine in an Instagram live session, during which he was asked by a fan whether the show might be saved by Netflix, Manifest-style.
He said: “No one’s mentioned anything like that, no Peacock, no Netflix. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody wants to stream it and put it on, but it’s an expensive show to make and that would be a big drawback.”
Previously, NBC had bet big on the hospital drama. In the midst of its second season in early 2020, the network gave the show a very rare three season pick-up, something reserved for its biggest hits (This Is Us also got a three-season renewal and will end with the last of those seasons.)
In a statement about the cancelation, NBCUniversal’s president of scripted programming, Lisa Katz, wrote: “The story of Max Goodwin, and his never-ending commitment to patients at New Amsterdam, has been inspiring. We’re so grateful to [executive producers] David Schulner, Peter Horton and our cast and crew for their incredible dedication, talent and collaboration.”
New Amsterdam Season 4 airs on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET / 9 p.m. CT on NBC.
