The Lottery was a Lifetime television series that premiered on July 20, 2014. The show centered around a dystopian future in which a lottery is held each year to select a citizen to be sacrificed in a ritualistic killing. Despite heavy promotion by Lifetime and the provocative premise, The Lottery was cancelled after just one season due to low viewership ratings. There are several factors that contributed to the show’s disappointing performance and swift cancellation.
Poor Critical Reception
The Lottery received overwhelmingly negative reviews from professional TV critics. It holds a Metacritic score of just 24 out of 100 based on 18 critic reviews, indicating “generally unfavorable” reception. Many critics panned the writing as predictable, clichéd, and lacking in nuance. The premise itself was seen as derivative of earlier works like Shirley Jackson’s famous short story “The Lottery” and the young adult book and film series The Hunger Games. Reviews criticized the lack of thoughtful social commentary expected from a show with such a controversial dystopian setting.
Los Angeles Times critic Mary McNamara wrote: “The Lottery comes bearing an impossibly precious socio-political concept only to bury it in predictable plotting, thin characterization and clunky dialogue.” Entertainment Weekly’s Jeff Jensen said: “This highly derivative drama lacks the courage of conviction to meaningfully explore its provocative premise.”
Overall, the critical consensus seemed to be that The Lottery failed to do anything interesting or thought-provoking with its ritualistic murder plot device. This likely turned off many viewers from giving the fledgling show a chance in its first season.
Too Graphic for Lifetime’s Audience
While The Lottery aimed to provide social commentary on wealth inequality and the vapidity of reality television, many reviewers felt the show leaned too heavily into exploitative depictions of violence. The ritual killings were presented in almost fetishistic detail that seemed gratuitous rather than purposeful.
This overt violence and brutality seemed out of step for Lifetime, a network better known for uplifting programming aimed at female audiences. Critics argued The Lottery’s graphic content was misaligned with Lifetime’s brand and audience. Lifetime’s primarily older, female viewers likely found The Lottery too violent and disturbing. The show’s sensationalized brutality seemed designed to court controversy and buzz rather than genuinely reflect Lifetime’s programming mission.
Too Intense Competition
The Lottery also had the misfortune of premiering during an incredibly competitive summer 2014 TV season. In the same month, acclaimed shows like FX’s Fargo and HBO’s The Leftovers also debuted. These higher profile, better reviewed series likely overshadowed The Lottery.
The show also aired at the same time as other established dystopian/reality competition titles like The Hunger Games films and reality survival competition shows were at peak popularity. So The Lottery felt derivative — bringing nothing new to a feeling over-saturated sub-genre. The crowded field of better reviewed shows on cable and streaming likely drowned out interest in taking a chance on Lifetime’s new ritually macabre series.
What Was the Premise of The Lottery?
The Lottery took place in a futuristic dystopian version of the United States where women have stopped bearing children due to an infertility pandemic. To repopulate the human race, the government runs a national lottery system every year to select a woman to be publicly sacrificed. Her death is a fertility ritual to supposedly restore human reproduction.
In the series pilot, 100 balls fall during the lottery drawing. The socialite Allison (Marley Shelton) is chosen as the unlucky lottery “winner.” The rest of the season follows Allison and her family’s attempts to escape her grim fate. Subplots involve the shadowy totalitarian government, lottery corruption scandals, and resistance movements.
The show aimed to provide commentary on themes like:
- Wealth inequality
- Reality television voyeurism
- Dystopian authoritarianism
- Scapegoating innocent people during societal crises
However, as noted, critics felt the show failed to develop these themes with any nuance. The dark ritual killings were depicted for exploitative shock value rather than thoughtful social critique.
Main Characters
- Allison (Marley Shelton) – The beautiful, privileged socialite selected by the lottery.
- James (Michael Graziadei) – Allison’s husband who tries to save her.
- Kyle (Charlie Barnett) – A schizophrenic lottery official who wants to expose corruption.
- Vanessa (Athena Karkanis) – Kyle’s estranged twin sister and an agent working for the lottery.
- Nathan (Yul Vazquez) – The calculating President who oversees the lottery.
A recurring theme is the contrast between elite citizens like Allison living in wealth and comfort compared to impoverished citizens desperate for basic resources. The lottery is rigged to favor choosing lower class citizens. The richer Allison’s family is revealed to be, the more controversy stirs over her unfair selection over more “deserving” poor women.
The Lottery’s Single Season Overview
Low Premiere Ratings
The Lottery debuted to just 1.1 million viewers, losing nearly half the audience of its lead-in program, Unforgettable. These ratings were considered extremely disappointing for a highly promoted original series on a major cable network like Lifetime. The premiere also only drew a 0.4 rating in the advertiser coveted 18-49 demographic — a weak showing that didn’t bode well for generating high ad revenue.
Ratings Decline Over Season
Ratings steadily declined over the first season from the lackluster premiere. The finale only managed 960,000 viewers, down over 12% from the premiere audience. This decline despite heavy promotion and controversy stoked by the show’s provocative premise.
| Episode # | Viewers (Millions) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1.1 |
| 2 | 1.0 |
| 3 | 0.9 |
| 4 | 0.8 |
| 5 | 0.8 |
| 6 | 1.0 |
| 7 | 0.9 |
| 8 | 0.9 |
| 9 | 0.8 |
| 10 | 0.96 |
Lifetime Cancels After Season 1
Due to the continuous ratings decline and overwhelmingly negative reviews, Lifetime opted not to renew The Lottery for a second season. The cancellation was announced in October 2014, just 3 months after the series premiere. The network said the decision came down to the show failing to find a large enough audience on Lifetime.
Lifetime execs thanked the show’s producers but admitted The Lottery “did not resonate with our audience.” The series failed to attract Lifetime’s primarily female viewership, likely due to the graphic ritualized killings central to the plot.
Why The Lottery Flopped So Quickly
We can summarize the key factors that led to The Lottery’s swift cancellation:
- Critical panning – Critics almost universally agreed the show was poorly written and failed to deliver interesting social commentary.
- Too violent for Lifetime’s brand – The show’s sensationalized brutality was deemed inappropriate and misaligned with the female-focused network.
- Premiered against tougher competition – The summer 2014 TV season was overcrowded with better reviewed prestige shows.
- Premise felt derivative – The dystopian tropes came off as ripoffs of earlier works like The Hunger Games.
- Never found an audience – The premiere debuted weakly and ratings declined continuously, signalling low viewer interest.
While The Lottery had an intriguing dystopian premise on paper, the execution was critically panned. The show failed to leave a positive impression with either critics or viewers. Paired with the graphic content being mismatched for Lifetime, it’s not surprising the plug was pulled after just one low-rated, controversial season. The Lottery serves as a cautionary tale that an attention-grabbing concept alone cannot sustain a poorly executed show.
Similar Quick Cancellations
The Lottery is far from the only hyped up TV series to get swiftly cancelled after negative reviews and low ratings:
Lucky 7 (2013 ABC)
This drama about gas station workers in Queens who win the lottery also premiered to disappointing viewership. Despite a heavy promotional push, the pilot only drew an average audience. Ratings dropped over 50% by the second episode. ABC pulled the show after just two episodes.
Made in Jersey (2012 CBS)
CBS had high hopes for this legal drama led by British actress Janet Montgomery. But the show received poor reviews for predictable plotting and clichéd characters. Viewership declined continuously over its 8 episodes. CBS cancelled the show after less than two months.
The Playboy Club (2011 NBC)
Advertised as a glamorous drama about the early days of Hugh Hefner’s iconic brand and clubs, this series also generated controversy over sexualizing the feminist movement. Low ratings led NBC to cancel the show after just 3 episodes, despite ordering 11.
Like these quickly cancelled flops, The Lottery couldn’t overcome negative reviews and poor premiere ratings. No amount of hype and controversy could mask the weaker execution. The show became an unfortunate footnote as another hyped series that failed to catch on in the crowded “Peak TV” era.
Would The Lottery Have Worked on a Streaming Service?
Given the mismatched viewership for Lifetime’s primarily female audience, perhaps The Lottery could have fared better if developed for a streaming platform like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video. Though the reviews were still poor, the streaming model provides some advantages:
- Ability to access the full season at once.
- Draws wider variety of viewers than a cable channel.
- Less ratings pressure; renewal is based more on completion metrics.
Releasing the full season together could allow word-of-mouth to potentially build audience over the course of the season, rather than week-to-week. Dark, provocative series also tend to attract younger demographics that are moving away from cable. With streaming, the producers could craft the show toward their intended audience rather than try to fit within a traditional cable brand like Lifetime.
However, given the overall negative critical consensus, The Lottery still likely faced an uphill battle to lasting success. Lower rated shows may survive on streaming, but typically need at least passable reviews to drive enough interest. The failures in writing and character development could have hampered The Lottery regardless of format. Still, debuting on a streaming platform first rather than Lifetime may have given the show a slightly better chance to resonate.
Could The Lottery Be Revived?
Though The Lottery has now been off the air for nearly a decade, many failed shows have found new life years later through reboots or revivals. Could a streaming service or other network potentially resurrect The Lottery to give the concept another chance?
A revival would offer opportunities to rework the weaker elements that plagued the first season. With more thoughtful character writing and sharper social commentary, perhaps The Lottery concept could live up to its ambition. Lean into the tantalizing mysteries surrounding the totalitarian government and lottery corruption. Create more dimensional characters to make the stakes resonate.
However, the major hurdle is that dystopian fiction centered around adolescent violence has fallen out of favor after The Hunger Games peaked nearly a decade ago. TV tastes have shifted away from dark dystopias toward more optimistic, heartwarming content. The current appetite for gritty dystopian allegory appears lower.
Significant retooling of the lottery concept and a deliberate pivot away from exploitative violence would likely be required. But in the hands of thoughtful writers looking to provide meaningful social commentary again, The Lottery franchise could potentially work for today’s streaming landscape. The door is open for an inventive producer to reimagine and revive the ill-fated show in a way that lives up to its provocative potential.
Conclusion
The Lottery stands out as a textbook case of a much-hyped TV series that flamed out quickly due to a confluence of factors – poor reviews, ratings struggles, and mismatched network brand. The premised promised edgy, social commentary but failed to deliver beyond exploitative aesthetics. While a streaming revival could rehabilitate the concept, significant retooling would be required and the market may have moved past dystopian fiction. Yet for producers seeking intellectual property to reinvigorate, The Lottery provides plenty of fertile ground for exploration with the right adjustments. The story of the rise and swift fall of this notorious, provocative show will endure as a cautionary tale about the fine line between boundary-pushing social commentary and gratuitous sensationalism.