Amazon cancels J.K. Simmons sci-fi series Night Sky after one season

Night Sky won't be getting a second season – Amazon Prime Video has canceled the sci-fi series after only one season, Deadline reports.

The show starred Oscar-winning actors J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek as Franklin and Irene, a married couple who discover a portal to a deserted planet in their backyard that they've kept secret for years to protect the world from outsiders. However, when a young man (Chai Hansen) enters their lives, things start going wrong, and they discover that there is more to this portal than they once thought.

The show was created by Holden Miller, while Daniel C. Connolly, who previously worked on series like The Son, starring Pierce Brosnan, served as showrunner. 

All eight episodes were released on Prime Video in May 2022 and the first episode was also streamed in outer space. This marked the furthest distance from Earth that a TV show has ever been broadcast and made Prime Video the first streamer to distribute a movie or show directly into space.

On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the show has an average critics rating of 73%, while the audience score is 81%, so Night Sky was received positively by both critics and casual viewers alike. However, Deadline cites low viewership figures and high production costs as a reason for the series' cancelation. 

Night Sky season 1 is available to stream now. If you've already caught up with the sci-fi drama, fill out your watch list with our picks of the other best shows on Amazon Prime Video.