Primetime Shows on NBC
Credit: Getty Images

Quantum Leap is officially ending with Season 2. If you’re a fan of the sci-fi series, you might be wondering why Quantum Leap was canceled after Season 2. Read on to learn more about the disappointing news.

Related Story

Quantum Leap is NBC’s popular sci-fi series that’s a reboot of the hit 1989 series of the same name. The show premiered in 2022 and stars Raymond Lee as the new lead character, Dr. Ben Song, as well as Caitlin Bassett, Mason Alexander Park, Nanrisa Lee, and Ernie Hudson. The series follows Ben, a physicist who finds himself trapped in the past, “leaping” into different people’s lives, sorting out their problems, and changing history in hopes of returning to his own life in the present.

More than a month after the Season 2 finale aired on NBC, the network announced on Friday, April 5, 2024, that it would not renew Quantum Leap for a third season. The cancellation is upsetting for fans, mainly because the Season 2 finale ended on a major cliffhanger.

In the two-hour final episode, Ben’s former fiancée Addison (Bassett) volunteered to leap to get him home, but the plan went south, and she ended up stuck in the same time period as him. With two leapers now wandering through space and time, the show set itself up for an intriguing third season, but viewers will not be able to see it. Season 2 has a shortened season of 13 episodes because of the now-resolved actors’ and writers’ strikes.

Before the news was announced, series co-showrunners Martin Gero and Dean Georgaris told TVLine that they had already mapped out a general game plan for the potential third season.

Raymond Lee as Dr. Ben Song, Wilder Yari as Dean on NBC's "Quantum Leap."

“We know what the shape would be for Season 3, where it would go and how it would end,” Gero explained. “We like to have these seasons feel like standalone novels in a series of books you really love and so, this season had a real beginning, middle and end, and always that little epilogue that is like, ‘This is where we’re going in the future.’ We know the shape of what the Season 3 book would be.”

Meanwhile, the showrunners told Deadline that although the final episode of Season 2 wasn’t written like a series finale, it neatly wraps up the show.

“When we got the early renewal for Season 2, we knew we were not going to end it on a cliffhanger,” Georgaris said. “We were going to end it on the first scene from Season 3, and we’re going to end it with the two characters together, but in a way that you never expected. And that sort of says to the audience, ‘look at all the great places we can go.’ So if it feels like a completion for audiences, that’s wonderful. It is a completion of part of the journey, but I think for us, it serves as the launch for the rest of the journey.”

Although it’s unknown why NBC decided not to renew Quantum Leap for another run, poor ratings could be a major factor. In early March, TV Insider reported that Season 2 of Quantum Leap’s 18-to-49 demo ratings were down nearly 25 percent at NBC.

At the time, Georgaris also addressed Quantum Leap being on the bubble between cancellation and renewal. “The new reality we’re all getting used to is, it’s not just about one rating anymore. It’s not just about one number. There are multiple platforms,” he said. “So the truth is, I think every showrunner and every show creator is living a bubble existence, for the most part. That just comes with it. And that’s fine.”Episodes of Quantum Leap can be streamed on Peacock.

Watch 'Quantum Leap' on Peacock $5.99+

Check out this gallery to see who your favorite primetime stars are dating and married to in real life.