When Fox decided to cancel the widely popular supernatural drama series Lucifer, there was a huge outcry from fans, leaving many to wonder why the network chose to end the show after the massive cliffhanger that could have been resolved in Season 4 of the show. After all, fans had been waiting three seasons for Detective Chloe Decker, played by Laura German, to finally realize that Tom Ellis's character Lucifer Morningstar was really and truly Lucifer himself, and that his rhetoric on the subject was actually truthful and sincere.
Months after Lucifer was canceled, Fox Television Group CEO Dana Walden has finally explained why the network decided to drop the show after three series, commenting that the number of viewers just wasn't high enough to justify bringing Lucifer back for Season 4, according to CBR.
However, Walden did also note that the fact that the drama was owned by an outside studio did not help matters any in terms of economics.
"We had a great time working with that cast and the executive producers of the show. It worked well for us. But as we were going into this season, we looked at the size of the audience, which was starting to get pretty narrow. We just made a determination that given it was owned by an outside studio, at the time we couldn't justify the economics. It was not an inexpensive show, and we just made a decision that ultimately it wasn't performing to a broad enough audience in a way that worked for us."