NBC brought a lot of bad news during the 2024–2025 TV season. The Irrational was one of many shows canceled, and that cancellation came weeks after the second season finale aired. It meant that the show has ended with a cliffhanger, and now we’ll never get answers.
This was one of those decisions that came out on the worst day of the year for news. It was the Friday before the week of the Upfronts, and we know that that’s a dark day for TV viewers. Now we’re looking at why the decision was made in the first place.
The Irrational season 2 couldn’t hold up outside of a strike season
While NBC hasn’t confirmed the reasoning for canceling The Irrational, it does look like it comes down to a disappointing business decision. The Irrational season 2 saw a huge dip in the linear ratings, making it clear that it couldn’t hold up against other shows. The first season performed well because it was one of the only shows to air in fall 2023 due to the strikes of the summer months.
According to TV Series Finale, The Irrational season 2 saw a 37% drop in the average demo numbers and a 39% drop in the average total audience numbers from the first season. That’s a concerning drop, and it makes sense that NBC worried that it wouldn’t draw in the viewers with its third season to justify the cost of production.
It just sucks for us, because the series was a lot of fun, and now we’re left with a cliffhanger that we won’t get answers to. Who was stalking Alec?
The Irrational was also close to the bottom of all scripted NBC shows
The large drop may have been something NBC could handle if the series was one of the top performers on the network. That would suggest there was a huge problem with NBC as a whole. However, The Irrational sat second-to-last out of all the scripted shows, proving that it is a show issues. The only show behind it was Grosse Pointe Garden Society, which was a midseason series that started on Sundays and moved to Fridays.
I actually think it was a night issue. The 10 p.m. timeslot on most of the nights is a difficult one, and there’s a reason CBS, ABC, and NBC all considered dropping it recently. Maybe they should, because too many shows are struggling in that timeslot and then getting canceled.
The Irrational is available to stream on Peacock.
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