Is 'The Republic of Sarah' Canceled or Is the CW Series Renewed for Season 2?

The CW drama The Republic of Sarah follows high school teacher Sarah Cooper (Stella Baker) with a vague loophole to declare her small New England town an independent country when it becomes threatened with demolition by a mining company. Sarah, a history teacher, makes some history of her own when she discovers the mineral coltan underneath the land of her hometown.

But the discovery is marred by Lydon Industries, which wants to roll in with their mining trucks and destroy her tiny hamlet and all the resident's properties. Thankfully, Sarah comes up with the crazy plan for her town to claim independence, courtesy of a mapping loophole. She comes to find out the land where her town Greylock sits was not formally claimed by either the United States or Canada, so it was able to be its own entity.

The show's pilot was originally planned and worked on by CBS with actress Sarah Drew in the title role. However, they dropped it, and it was picked by the CW a year later, which ordered a new pilot and a brand new cast in May 2020. The Republic of Sarah premiered on June 14, and unfortunately, the season finale will serve as the series finale because the show was canceled. Keep reading to find out why the show, after only one season, will not be returning.

When a television show gets canceled, the biggest reason usually is poor ratings. And in this case, The Republic of Sarah was canceled because of its subpar ratings. According to TV Line, the show averaged only 326,000 weekly viewers and a 0.05 demo rating, which put the series at the lower end of the CW's Nielsen ratings for the summer.

Out of the 30 plus shows that have aired on the CW since the fall of 2020, it's only performed better than two shows — Wellington Paranormal and Dead Pixels — so its future was pretty much on the rocks. The Republic of Sarah was the only original scripted series on the network in 2020-2021 TV season that did not earn a renewal for a second season. The show's creator Jeffrey Paul King took to social media to break the news on Sept. 2.

In an Instagram post along with a photo of the cast, he shared, "I'm sad to say the news is not good. The Republic of Sarah will come to an end on Monday with what will now be our series finale. Thank you so much to everyone who watched and who let our little show into their lives. It means the world to us. Please tune in on Monday and help us say goodbye to Greylock."

Episode 13 of The Republic of Sarah will be the final episode and will air on Sept. 6 at 9 p.m. EST on the CW.