If you actively kept up with the DC TV era, then you were living. Being a fan of the comic book genre at a time when superheroes were making their presence felt all across television was truly an unforgettable experience, and you could pretty much find a DC or Marvel show on each night of the week on broadcast TV. Considering that there are none on broadcast now, that really highlights what a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience the 2010s were.
Although the majority of DC TV programming came from The CW's Arrowverse, there was one DC show on another network. That was Batman prequel Gotham, which aired on Fox and ran for five seasons. Starring David Mazouz as a young Bruce Wayne and Ben McKenzie as Detective James Gordon, the show had a mostly successful run, entertaining Bat-fans with its outlandish and off-the-wall plot developments each and every week (seriously, no Batman project captured Gotham City quite like this one!).
And yet, the show was initially planned to run for 10 seasons. With that in mind, let's dive into the story as to why Bruce Wayne's journey to his legendary comic book counterpart was fast-tracked.
Gotham's ratings steadily declined throughout its run
Gotham was always a must-see staple of the television landscape from 2014 until its finale in 2019, with the world talking about its ambitious storytelling and impressively original adaptations of the various Batman characters to appear. However, it was still a network TV show, meaning that its success was measured through on-the-night ratings on US TV network Fox.
The show kicked off with an incredible 8.21 million viewers tuning into the pilot episode. Like with all TV shows, those numbers gradually declined throughout its first season, with the finale averaging around 5 million viewers. In the second season, the series held steady, with each episode bringing in between 3.5 and 4.5 million viewers. It was good, but still down from where it began. And yet, it became clear that Gotham had amassed its own audience, perhaps even outside of the mainstream Batman fans, who continued to tune into the show each week.
By the end of its fourth season, it was bringing in around 2.7 million viewers. That's less of a reflection on the show, as the increasingly competitive TV landscape - which now had to contend with the boom of streaming TV - meant that less people were watching on the night. So, yes, Gotham remained popular for Fox, but there was the question of whether it was popular enough when it was undoubtedly one of the more expensive shows to produce.
After being on the bubble, the show was then renewed for a fifth and final season, allowing it the chance to wrap up on its own terms - even if that conclusion was a lot earlier than initially expected. But Gotham went out like it lived - with a ridiculously ambitious series finale that saw Bruce Wayne finally don the Batsuit and start his own legacy as The Dark Knight. The episode also saw him take on the show's version of The Joker - Jeremiah Valeska, a.k.a. "J" - ensuring that the world talked about Gotham's ambitious nature one more time.
Gotham was caught between two very different eras of TV
Like Smallville did for Superman before it, Gotham was intended to run for about 10 seasons, chronicling the story of its young hero as he eventually found his way towards becoming his comic book counterpart. With that in mind, the two are often compared, with many wondering why Gotham didn't last longer than it did.
When Gotham first premiered, it came at a time when network TV was still the primary way of watching TV in the US. Sure, there were cable networks with major shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead and streaming was beginning to flourish, but broadcast TV was still the undisputed king/queen of US TV. In fact, it was enjoying quite the comeback because of the multiple high-concept shows on there, including the Arrowverse shows on The CW. But it still couldn't compare to the dominance of network TV a decade earlier.
There was less competition back in the early 2000s as broadcast TV was the one of only forms of television to enjoy, meaning that the majority of competition was simply between the "big five" networks. Yes, The WB was the least-watched of them, but it garnered strong ratings - particularly among the coveted younger viewers - and even if it didn't, there is one reason as to why Smallville lasted as long as the creatives wanted to.
Both Smallville and Gotham were global hits, but the former had a domestic advantage that the latter did not. Becoming a worldwide hit benefited Smallville all around as it was produced by Warner Bros. Television and aired on The WB - a network also owned by Warner Bros. When that network evolved into The CW, WB still had 50% ownership, meaning that it never mattered how the show performed on the network if it was a global hit for them (although Smallville performed very well on both networks) as the studio made money of its worldwide success through international broadcasting deals. Gotham's global success may have benefitted the studio, but it didn't benefit the TV network airing it, as Fox was only focused on how it performed on-the-night in the US.
The longer that it went on, the television landscape evolved, with bigger, more cinematic shows making their presence felt on both streaming and cable. It all resulted in less people watching on the night, and contributed to a major ratings decline in virtually all network TV shows. And this was at a time when catch-up services and DVR performances weren't considered as important as they are now.
And, with Gotham's ratings declining and its budget no doubt higher than a typical network TV show, Fox renewed it for just one more season in 2019, allowing it to finish out its run with a larger-than-life final season that made the most of its 12 episodes.