We’ve lost another good show. Effective with tonight’s season finale, the FX boxing drama ‘Lights Out’ is down for the count.

I covered the show’s pilot episode when it aired back in January. As I said at the time, the subject matter may not have inherently interested me, but the terrific performances and great sense of tone drew me in very quickly. I set it for a series recording on my DVR right away. Nevertheless, I have to admit that I got sidetracked along the way. After the first few episodes, I started letting the rest pile up on my DVR. After tonight’s finale, I’ll have nine episodes waiting to be watched. I do actually plan to watch these in a marathon eventually, so please don’t spoil any plot developments for me!

Unfortunately, even though the FX network gave it as much support as it was able, the show faltered in the ratings. (I guess I didn’t help any – but then, I’m not part of a Nielsen family anyway.) Much as happened with its other acclaimed but low-rated ‘Terriers’ recently, the network begrudgingly had to admit defeat. ‘Lights Out’ was allowed to finish out its first season, but will not be picked up for another.

FX President John Landgraf insists that the failure of these two shows will not deter the network from developing more quality programming. “We just have to raise our game,” he said. “You’d think after the failure of Terriers from a commercial standpoint and the weak debut of Lights Out … that we’d be discouraged. … I’m actually really excited because it’s a tougher environment. You’ve got to jump higher, got to jump further and you’ve got to work hard to find some kind of creative excellence with commercial noisiness.”

Good for him, and I’m already quite intrigued by the network’s new comedy, ‘Wilfred’, which premieres in June. Check out this crazy promo!

[via Yahoo! TV]