The months of speculating whether ‘Terra Nova’ will be renewed has now been answered…and the answer from Fox executives is a resounding “no.”

As mentioned before when we first heard of the possible cancellation, Fox had to make a decision before April in order to start production had another season been ordered. Although the show was not an out of the gate runaway hit, it did have decent ratings (it averaged 7.5 million viewers) and the show did very well internationally. But it wasn’t enough to keep the show alive.

Although Fox only picked up the option to renew Stephen Lang and Jason O’Mara’s contract for a possible second series, the actors went on to look for other gigs while the network took their time to decide the series’ fate. Lang has already booked a three episode arc on the USA network show ‘In Plain Sight’ while executive producer Jon Cassar has reunited with his ‘24’ star Kiefer Sutherland to direct an episode of ‘Touch.’

At the Television Critics Association winter press tour, Fox  executive Kevin Reilly stated to TV Line, “We’ll decide very soon, because it does need to get back into production in the next month. If (it doesn’t come back), we made money on it (and) the audience enjoyed it.”

Enjoyed it they did. Even before the official word was announced of the cancellation, petitions were circulating around the web to save the show. Earlier today, the Sci-Fi Congress’ petition was inching towards 10,000 signatures.

Even though the network has said “no” to a second season, 20th Century Fox, the company that produces the series, plans to see if other networks may be interested in taking it up. This is not new and other shows in the past have started on one network only to be cancelled then picked up by another network and go on for several successful seasons.

So even though ‘Terra Nova’ will have the dubious distinction of the highest-rated cancelled show of the 2011 -2012 season, all is not lost. If the show does find another home, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, did you see this cancellation coming?

Source: Deadline