Why did NBC cancel Quantum Leap? (Could we get a movie?)

After two excellent seasons, the Quantum Leap revival has been canceled. NBC chose not to move forward with another season, despite the cliffhanger. Fans want to know why.

NBC made the decision during the first week of April. It came off the back of a two-month wait to find out the show’s fate. It means that the Season 2 finale is now the series finale, and it certainly ended on a major cliffhanger.

The show ended with Addison making the choice to leap and switch places with Ben. However, the code was wrong (again!), and Addison found herself leaping into the same time as Ben. The two are now leaping through time, and it’s up to Magic and co. to bring them both back. Of course, now we don’t get to see how it all ends.

We’re pretty much left with an ending like the OG series. That series saw Scott Bakula’s Sam Beckett stuck in time. The end title card told us that nobody knew what had happened to him. The revival was set in the same universe, and nobody had found out where Sam was and whether he was dead or not.

Why is Quantum Leap canceled after two seasons?

NBC didn’t give any clear reasons for the cancellation of Quantum Leap, but we can speculate. It likely came down to the cost of the series vs. the linear ratings.

Despite airing in the fall while a lot of other networks only had unscripted programming, Quantum Leap failed to pull in the strong linear ratings a show like this needed. Shows like this are expensive. They’re not just set in one time period, which is expensive enough. Quantum Leap takes characters through multiple time periods, meaning many different costumes, sets, styles of cars, and more. Like Timeless, the series needed to pull in the strong linear ratings to survive.

MORE: 3 reasons we need Quantum Leap Season 3

The show was down around 25% of the demo rating compared to the first season. It was one of the bottom performers on NBC, and every year, there needs to be some cancellations. This show sadly ended up on the chopping block.

Fans deserve to get closure, though. It was bad enough the first series didn’t end with some decent closure. Now it happens with the second series. So, I would personally love a wrap-up movie. Maybe we could see the team working together to find a way to get Addison and Ben back in their own time period.

Quantum Leap is available to stream on Peacock.