'Primeval' Cancelled

By ITV After 3 Seasons

Britain’s ITV television network has cancelled Primeval after three seasons.  Created by Adrian Hodges and Tim Haines, who previously produced the highly regarded Walking With...(Dinosaurs, etc.) series of documentaries, Primeval was a science fiction cult drama about a team of scientists who traveled across the U.K. investigating temporal anomalies, which led to encounters with prehistoric and futuristic beasts, which in turn allowed the shows creators to demonstrate the ability to create lifelike monsters that they had developed for their scientific documentaries. 

Altogether ITV produced 23 episodes of Primeval across 3 seasons. The show's ratings remained strong, but the network has been cutting back its production of expensive dramas in favor of cheaper fare.  The cast of Primeval has experienced considerable turnover. Team leader Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshaw) left the series after the third episode of  Season 3 when he was killed by his estranged wife (who meets her demise at the end of Season 3).  BBC America began broadcasting Primeval in August of 2008, and starting showing the first of 10 Season 3 episodes in May, 2009.

Though ITV has cancelled the series, a source close to the show told the scifionline Website: “Primeval isn't dead. We're very proud of what we've achieved over the past three years and we have every intention of keeping Primeval alive in other ways.”  Warner Bros. recently announced that it had acquired the rights to create a Primeval movie (see “Primeval Movie Planned”), and there has also been talk of an American version of the TV series.