Why ABC canceled Once Upon a Time in Wonderland after one season

For all the blood, sweat and manpower ABC put into finding a successor “Lost” (the show that shaped the course of television in the early 21st century)i’d bet the network never bet that it would take the form of Once Upon a Time.

Conceived by “Lost” alums and “TRON: Legacy” screenwriters Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, “Once Upon a Time” stars “House, MD” veteran Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, a no-nonsense pawnbroker who, like any hero, the journey’s protagonist is worthy of their attention, discovers that there is much more to her world (and destiny) than her ever understood. The show itself combines puzzle-style storytelling with well-known fairy-tale characters — especially the Disneyfied versions, made possible by ABC’s ownership of the House of Mouse — to create a deep lore and complex mythos that rivals all of JJ Abrams or Damon Lindelof could only ever hope to dream. What you end up with is a series that admirably finds a way to comfortably inhabit the intersection between “Disney Enthusiasts” (I’d call them “Disney Fools” for alliterative effect if I weren’t worried about it being taken the wrong way) and “Mysterious nerd TV box” in a Venn diagram. Is it any wonder he took off?

Ultimately, even when it looked like the new fad known as streaming and Netflix’s one-shot strategy might send weekly network television down the path of the dodo, Once Upon a Time lasted long enough to air 155 episodes spanning seven seasons from 2011 to 2018. There was even a point when ABC tried to expand the brand with Once Upon a Time in Wonderland , a spin-off centered around Alice in Wonderland characters like Sophie Lowe’s Alice and Emma Rigby’s Red Queen. (Also, Jafar from Aladdin, performing “Lost” graduate Naveen Andrews without unusual nailsthere is too — long story.) Unfortunately, the show only lasted one season of 13 episodes before network executives pulled the Red Queen and ordered her head chopped off. So what happened?

When Once Upon a Time in Wonderland premiered on ABC in October 2013, it seemed like everything was going smoothly for the larger Once Upon a Time in Wonderland franchise. Its parent show continued to be highly rated in its recently launched third season, so it certainly seemed like there was interest in expanding the property. The critical reception was, however, restrained (“Wonderland” takes only 63% on Rotten tomatoes), but even that would only partially explain why the series’ ratings started off much lower than Once Upon a Time before falling further. As it turned out, there was actually another significant factor.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour in July 2014. (via Entertainment Weekly), ABC Entertainment Group president at the time Paul Lee admitted that the network probably condemned “Wonderland” by airing it at the same Thursday night time slot as the absolute ratings monster that was The Big Bang Theory on CBS. The idea was that the “Once Upon a Time” spinoff would lead to ABC’s medical drama Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday nights and help (in Lee’s words) “build a night of empowered women,” as opposed to ABC using “Wonderland” to to fill a gap in the schedule while “Once Upon a Time” went on hiatus midseason. In the end, though, Lee and ABC learned one of life’s harsh facts: No one messes with Sheldon Cooper and lives to tell about it.

Fortunately, Horowitz, Kitsis and their creative colleagues, which included Wonderland co-writers Jane Espenson (she was a staple of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff Once Upon a Time ) and the late Zach Estrin ( “Prison Break,” “Lost in Space”) were going to create a spin-off to tell the full story during the first season, so those who watched were not cursed with a grievous precipice that would never be resolved. It’s not quite the happily ever after you’d expect from a Disney fairy tale, but it’s necessary.