Pitch Officially Cancelled, Clearing the Way For Mark Consuelos to Move to Riverdale

12/31/2017 06:18 pm EST

Fan-favorite baseball drama Pitch got official word that it would be cancelled after its rookie year tonight, clearing the path for star Mark Consuelos to make his move to Riverdale.

The CW Archie Comics adaptation last week cast Consuelos as Hiram Lodge, "a ruthless, handsome, charismatic businessman who is coming back to Riverdale after weathering a financial scandal that almost destroyed him. He is there to reconnect with his wife Hermione and, especially, his daughter Veronica, who is the apple of his eye."

At the time, the fate of Pitch was still up in the air, and since Consuelos is a series regular on that show, it would have taken first priority and he would have had to bow out of Riverdale if Pitch were cancelled.

The show had been on the bubble all season, but with good reviews and a solid social media presence, fans had hoped it might earn a second turn at bat. At the time it was generally seen as a toss-up by the kinds of people who make odds on these things, but when Consuelos inked the Riverdale deal it seemed like the writing might be on the wall.

Besides inking a deal to be a regular on Riverdale, Consuelos booked a gig as a recurring guest on The Night Shift.

In-series, Hiram Lodge's financial scandal has ruined lives in and outside of Riverdale, and is responsible for bringing his family back to the small town (where the one property held in his wife's name was). His relationship with Veronica got deeper and darker last week, when he essentially threatened her from jail that if she did not testify for him as a character witness, he would make sure her mother was ruined.

Lodge is one of a number of Archie characters -- along with Sabrina, the Teenage Witch -- who have been either rumored or expected to appear in the show's forthcoming second season. During a set visit back in February, series star Camila Mendes, who plays Veronica Lodge, revealed that there had been plans at one point for Hiram to show up in the season 1 finale, but that they had changed.

More Riverdale news:

• Archie And Veronica Sing In "To Riverdale and Back Again" Clip
• Riverdale Season Finale Synopsis Released
• A Blossom Family Secret Is Revealed In Archie #19 -- Will Riverdale Follow Suit?
• Luke Perry Explains the Drama Between Riverdale's Parents

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