Quantum Leap Canceled: Reasons and Stars Reactions Recap

The Quantum Leap project has been permanently shut down after the season 2 finale that aired in February 2024 and now acts as a very satisfactory series finale. NBC canceled the show after 2 beautiful seasons.

Why NBC canceled Quantum Leap

The reason for the cancellation is the show’s low ratings while being one of the most expensive shows to produce. Quantum Leap ended up in 9th place from all the NBC shows, and only Magnum P.I. and La Brea scored lower in the demo.

The 2nd season of the show was shortened to 13 episodes to cut production costs but also due to the SAG AFTRA strike that held many shows at bay until they got a well-deserved pay increase.

The 2nd season had a casting shake-up by adding Eliza Taylor to the cast. It was quite a unique role that she played since it has never been done in the history of Quantum Leap: Ben lept from decade to decade to find and meet Eliza’s character every time and even broke glass ceilings by having her go to Princeton as one of the first women in history.

Meanwhile, Addison and the rest of the team lost contact with Ben after the 1st season finale. 3 years passed before the team was able to contact Ben again. And many things had changed during that time. For instance, Magic turned alcoholic, and Addison was engaged to someone else after moving on from Ben’s supposed death.

Towards the end of the 2nd season, Magic was completely clean, Addison got back together with Ben and Eliza returned in kind by creating a code to have Ben come back to the present. But before the code was used, Addison leaped and was seen next to Ben back in the 1940s and that was the end of the show.

The showrunners had mapped out Season 3 already

The showrunners Martin Gero and Dean Georgaris told TVLine in an interview that they already mapped out the 3rd season if there is one.

“We know what the shape would be for Season 3, where it would go, and how it would end,” Gero explained. “We like to have these seasons feel like standalone novels in a series of books you really love and so, this season had a real beginning, middle, and end, and always that little epilogue that is like, ‘This is where we’re going in the future.’ We know the shape of what the Season 3 book would be.”

The showrunners added that they realized that the show was on the bubble and said the following in an interview with Deadline:

“The new reality we’re all getting used to is, it’s not just about one rating anymore. It’s not just about one number. There are multiple platforms,” he said. “So the truth is, I think every showrunner and every show creator is living a bubble existence, for the most part. That just comes with it. And that’s fine.”

The cast reacts to the cancellation

Raymond Lee was one of the first to react with a beautiful post about the cancellation. In an Instagram post, he wrote the following:

Caitlin Bassett, who plays Addison, also only had nice things to say about the show’s cast and sad cancellation on her Instagram.

So sorry to say… farewell leapers🫡 Thank you so much for every moment of this amazing journey. And thank you @nbc and @universaltv for the ride of a lifetime. As the wonderful QL super-fan Matt Dale said – “be excellent to each other”. ❤️‍🩹

Personal thoughts about the Quantum Leap Cancellation

I am not going say crazy things like six-seasons-and-a-movie but I do hope that the show gets shopped around. Maybe even on a streaming platform but at the same time, I realize that it is near impossible these days in terms of rights and contracts.

I loved the show, both the original and the continuation of it. And I will miss the human interest stories that made Quantum Leap the show I tuned in for every time it was aired. The show deserved a bit more viewers when you look at the quality of writing and for a TV show, the special effects were amazing.

Who knows, maybe in the future, like far into the future like the time gap between the original show’s cancellation and the current one, so 31 years, maybe we will finally get to see what happened to Sam, Ben, and Addison when there is another Quantum Leap show that will tie up all the loose ends of the show. Here is hoping that there will be another and I can be very patient.

Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode Reviews

Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 1 Review: This took too long

“This took too long” is the first episode of the 2nd season of Quantum Leap. Ben is stranded in Russia but no one from the team supports him. It is revealed at the end that Quantum Leap has been disbanded.

Quantum Leap Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Ben and Teller

In Quantum Leap 2x01 Review, titled "Ben & Teller", Ben lept into the body of a woman named Lorena Chavez in her 70s who works at a bank and is eagerly awaiting the birth of her grandchild. Quantum Leap ep 2 changes character dynamics back in the present day for Team Quantum Leap.