We don’t know what kinds of changes can be made to the setup of “Extant” exactly to make it more appealing to a wider audience at this point, but the show does have a lot of potential that was left unexplored in the first two seasons, according to many critics.
There were some rumors that the producers of the show might be rearranged a bit in order to try exploring that potential a bit more, but we don’t know what might be planned for season 3 if it really is coming to the screen.
In any case, no matter if the show is cancelled or renewed, fans are going to find out soon enough. CBS can’t keep quiet about this production forever, especially with all the attention it’s been getting.
They will have to announce its cancellation sooner or later, and it might be better for the network to just get it over with and admit that the show isn’t coming back at this point (if that’s the case), as it will at least allow fans to move on faster and start searching for another show to make their primary one. But with the current state of shows on TV, there might not be too many viable candidates.