Why was Shelter canceled after one season?

Harlan Coben’s Shelter is not getting a second season, despite the cliffhanger ending. Why has Amazon canceled this series after just one season?

Amazon delivered some disappointing news. Shelter was among one of three shows with a diverse cast canceled. The Horror of Dolores Roach and With Love were also canceled after one and two seasons respectively.

Of course, fans of the series want to understand why. What was it about Shelter that led to it not landing a second season? Was there anything more that fans could have done to save it? It looks like Amazon is making decisions based on how the SAG-AFTRA strike ended.

Shelter could be a casualty of the dual strikes

When The Hollywood Reporter announced that the show was canceled, a reason wasn’t given. However, the timing is certainly suspicious. It’s not like Amazon is the first streamer to make some mass cancellations in the wake of the SAG-AFTRA strike ending. In fact, Amazon opted to unrenew shows during the strike action.

Hollywood is looking for ways to cut the cost of original programming. The streaming networks had to make some big sacrifices for the actors. Of course, those financial sacrifices are sure to be passed onto the consumer in the way of rising costs in the subscription services, but it also means less money for producing original content. And that isn’t all that cheap to do any more.

So, it does look like the strike action is mostly to do with the cancellation. It’s also possible that not enough people watched the series. The series premiered during the summer, at at time when the actors couldn’t promote their shows. None of the shows could make sure people knew that they were being released, which meant that the shows didn’t get the attention that they deserved. This could have led to a lower viewership. Rather than Amazon risking a second season, it’s opted to cancel Shelter because of this.

Shelter is available to stream on Prime Video.