Hulu gave The First a straight-to-series order back in 2017 and stumped up almost $55 million to make the show happen – which was around 22% of its annual $2.5 billion content budget (before the streamer was bought out by Disney, that is). With an investment that large, it’s safe to say Hulu thought it had a massive hit on its hands. Unfortunately, High Fidelity.

Related: Why High Fidelity Was Just Canceled (Will It Be Revived?)

So, why did Hulu decide to cancel The First? Here’s what we know about why the space drama won’t be getting a second season.

The First Wasn’t A Hit With Hulu Viewers

Like fellow streaming giants Netflix and Amazon Prime, Hulu doesn’t release viewership figures. However, Hulu’s senior vice president of original content Craig Erwich had a few telling things to say about the cancellation of The First at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in 2019. According to IndieWire, Erwich stated that “The audience just didn’t materialize for it” – which in layman’s means not many people watched The First.

The First’s freshman season also received mostly lukewarm reviews from critics, so it’s likely Hulu decided against investing more money in a big-budgeted show that had failed to find an audience.

The First Season 1 Featured Very Little Space

Exactly why The First failed to find a footing with Hulu subscribers is fairly obvious. For a space drama, the show featured very little in the way of outer space. Rather, its first season focused more on the preparation for the mission to Mars rather than the actual mission itself – in fact, Sean Penn and his castmates didn’t even depart for the Red Planet until The First season 1 finale.

All in all, The First was a slow burner – especially for a show that promised to put humans on Mars – and this probably had the effect of putting a lot of viewers off the show.

Next: Ghosts Of Mars Was Jason Statham's First Action Role