When a TV show kills off a beloved character, there’s a huge risk of losing the audience. The Hunting Party has just taken that risk, and it could be the end. However, there is a way to keep the series running, even without the ship.
The Hunting Party season 2 premiere confirmed that Oliver Odell did not survive the poison. Bex now has to deal with the loss of the man she loved — even if they didn’t officially get back together. It’s the end of the ship so many people were rooting for, and there is a risk that it means those viewers stop watching all together.
Yes, a show is more than a ship. The Hunting Party certainly is. However, there is a loud fanbase that only tuned in to see a ship happen, just like with so many TV shows out there.
The Hunting Party season 2 could lose its audience
The change of the timeslot was already a bad one. I hate the 10 p.m. ET/PT timeslot on a Thursday night, as it’s where so many TV shows have gone and ended up being canceled, especially on NBC. I’m still not over Found’s cancellation from 2025, and it had moved to that particular timeslot and lost viewership.
So, with that in mind, the show was already at a risk of losing people watching live. Now with the loss of Odell, it compounds the problem. There are many people out there who only tuned in to see this ship happen. Had the series kept Odell alive, people would continue to tune in with the hope that Odell and Bex would get together. Even if Bex found love with someone else, there was still that hope that she would “come to her senses” and choose Odell in the end.
By losing Odell, that’s the ship completely gone. This isn’t like Supernatural where characters can come back from the dead. It’s not like Arrow, where we know a loss is for a greater good or part of character development and can accept it. Odell still needed redemption work, and his “sacrifice” wasn’t all that worth it. The loss ends up making people angry, and that could be a death knell for The Hunting Party.
The Hunting Party did just up the stakes
However, I will say that this death is something similar to Big Sky. Taking out such a huge character is a risk, but it ups the stakes of the show. It’s also done early enough, so as to not feel completely wrong like 911 fans feel with the loss of Bobby Nash. By doing it at the end of The Hunting Party season 1/start of season 2, the show makes it clear that nobody is safe, which is something Melissa Roxburgh chatted with us about.
There’s an intensity to every case now. Sure, we know that Bex is likely to be safe each episode, because Melissa Roxburgh is the lead star, but what about the rest of the characters? By having one character die so early on, anyone could, and it makes each case all the more nerve-wracking, which can end up with more people tuning in. They don’t want to miss an episode with their favorite characters.
Losing Odell is a huge risk, and it’s one that may not pay off, especially with the change in timeslot. However, it does make me worried about other characters, and now I’m seated each week.
The Hunting Party airs on Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC and streams the following day on Peacock.