NBC used the Friday before Christmas to deliver lumps of coal to Midnight, Texas and Marlon viewers.

The network has opted to cancel the genre drama Midnight, Texas, based on author Charlaine Harris' best-selling trilogy, as well as the summer comedy Marlon, starring Marlon Wayans. The former, which will wrap its second season on Dec. 28, is being shopped to other outlets by producers Universal Television. (Hulu currently has streaming rights to the series.)

Midnight, Texas was renewed for an in-season run after an impressive debut in summer 2017. The series, which saw showrunner Monica Owusu-Breen depart and consulting producers Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder elevated for season two, returned for a Halloween-timed premiere. Despite the improved scheduling, the vampire drama returned significantly down after being off the air for more than a year. Through its Dec. 14 episode, the show averaged only a 1.6 rating in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demo and 2.9 million total viewers with three days of DVR. By comparison, season one had more than that in same-day returns alone in its typically little-watched summer slot (0.7 in the demo and 3 million total viewers).

Midnight, Texas, from Universal TV-based David Janollari Entertainment, starred Francois Arnaud, Dylan Bruce and Arielle Kebbel.

Marlon, meanwhile, was a multicamera comedy loosely based on the Wayans brother's life. The series had a solid first season (1.5 in the demo and 5.6 million total viewers) but returned down this past summer, averaging a 0.8 in the demo and 3 million total viewers (with three days of DVR). Essence Atkins co-starred on the Universal TV and 3 Arts effort.

Marlon becomes the latest summer scripted series to get the ax after a particularly poor showing. It joins CBS' Code Black and Salvation, NBC's Shades of Blue and Reverie and ABC's Take Two.