Peacock continues its cancellation streak with its coming-of-age Satanic Panic thriller series “Hysteria!” after one season, Variety reports. The news arrives just weeks after the streamer canceled sci-fi horror series “Teacup“.
The series premiered in October 2024, and all eight episodes are now available to stream.
Written and executive produced by Matthew Scott Kane (Stitchers) and David Goodman (The Orville), “Hysteria!” highlights America’s dark history of mass hysteria through ’80s Satanic Panic. It’s framed through a teen coming-of-age story centered around a trio of high school misfits caught up in a wave of dangerous hysteria.
The series’ official synopsis: “When a beloved varsity quarterback disappears during the ‘Satanic Panic ‘of the late 1980s, a struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts realize they can capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band, until a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported “supernatural activity “triggers a leather-studded witch hunt that leads directly back to them.”
“Hysteria!“ stars Garret Dillahunt (The Last House on the Left), Nolan North (Pretty Little Liars), Elijah Richardson (Fantasy Football), Milly Shapiro (Hereditary), Allison Scagliotti (Warehouse 13) and Jessica Treska (Alex & Me) star alongside Bruce Campbell, Julie Bowen, Anna Camp, Emjay Anthony (Krampus), Chiara Aurelia, Kezii Curtis, and Nikki Hahn.
This cancelation comes as disappointing news, as the genre-bending show struck a great balance between heart, humor, and scares. While the inaugural season delivered a tidy conclusion, it ended with a large hook for continuation. Namely in Anna Camp’s villainous Tracy Whitehead, who earned martyr status in the community, which left the door wide open for hysteria to take root once more.
Bruce Campbell even teased Bloody Disgusting where season two could go. He said, “It just shows you there’s a lot of stuff you can do. There’s more to it. I think they have more gas in the tank, and that’s important for a show; what do you have left? Now, we leave it up to the TV gods to decide if we come back for more. But I think a second season would be really cool because where it left off, you’re kind of like going, what?”
Peacock doesn’t release viewership data, but the critically acclaimed series failed to land in the Nielsen Top 10 streaming charts upon its release.