Stay tuned to the unpredictable future of TV's 'favourite' shows

THE recent cancellations of series such as WGN's Underground, Netflix's Sense8 and The Get Down, as well as network series including American Crime led me to ponder last week whether, in the event that the Peak TV bubble gets popped, shows that star people of colour might get hit particularly hard.

I'm not alone in wondering about either the prospect of a bubble, about which Todd VanDerWerff wrote for Vox, or the prospect of a disproportionate impact, which Maureen Ryan addressed in Variety. As I was trying to articulate some larger thoughts on the subject, I realised I was having a hard time predicting what might happen, in part because it's increasingly hard to know what makes a show successful anymore - and what might save it if it's lagging.

Once upon a time, it would have been simple to answer that question. It would have been the Nielsen ratings, stupid.