Why Young Rock Got Canceled

NBC has decided not to renew Young Rock for a fourth season bringing the comedy sitcom chronicling Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s early years to a close.

The show ran for three seasons and focussed on three main periods in the early life of Johnson. The elementary school time of his life gave us a window into ‘Dewey’ and his time in Hawaii.

In High School, Johnson struggled with impressing girls and did typical teen activities such as shoplifting. Then there was The Rock’s college years and later time in the Canadian and American Football leagues.

In each episode, Johnson sat down for an interview with Randall Park and reminisced on his life. We then got flashbacks to the mentioned periods.

This all made for a fast-paced and engaging show with wrestling superstars such as Andre The Giant, The Iron Sheik, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Afa & Sika, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Tony Atlas and of course Rocky Johnson all showing up. So why did Young Rock get canceled?

Why did Young Rock Got Canceled?

Not So Young Rock 

One theory as to why NBC canceled Young Rock could be that Season 3 signaled his younger stories had all been told. The Dewey character was shown to visibly transform into High School Rock. The narrative from Old Rock indicated there would be no more stories from this period of his life.

It was a shame as Dewey gave us some fun moments. These included the build-up to the first WrestleMania and a meeting with Cyndi Lauper played by Becky Lynch. There were also moments when wrestling legends such as Andre The Giant, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage acted as father figures to Dewey.

The Rock 

Season Three also moved the college-era Johnson into the early days of his WWE/F career. This included his feud with Triple H and SummerSlam 1998 Intercontinental Championship ladder match. 

We also got an insight into Johnson dropping the Rocky Maivia name and formally becoming The Rock, his Nation of Domination run, and Vince McMahon lining him up acting roles. 

An argument could be made that this timeframe had now moved from Young Rock to Prime Rock.

Ratings Rule

But perhaps the number reason Young Rock was canceled was a drop in ratings. Young Rock peaked with viewing figures of 3M. The show remained fun, light-hearted, and interesting throughout its 37 episodes. 

This wouldn’t explain the drop in ratings it saw between Season 2 and 3.

Shockingly NBC chose to air Young Rock at the same time as WWE SmackDown on FOX. This forced wrestling fans to choose between Young Rock and live wrestling. As a result, the ratings fell to 1.4M.

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