The killer was revealed to be Danny's girlfriend Molly Malone, whose sweet, perky behavior belied her true nature.

Four months prior to her arrival, Elliot reprised her role on General Hospital for the summer to cross over on The City in the fall.

However, despite Elliot's addition to the show, ratings continued to be the lowest of any daytime soap opera and ABC announced the program's cancellation in February 1997.

The original characters of the show included the survivors of the murder storyline on Loving, including Ally Alden (played by Laura Wright), Steffi Brewster (Amelia Heinle), Alex Masters (Randolph Mantooth), Angie Hubbard (Debbi Morgan), Tess Wilder (Catherine Hickland), Buck Huston (Philip Brown), Danny Roberts (Ted King), Jocelyn Roberts (Lisa Lo Cicero), Jacob Foster (Darnell Williams), Frankie Hubbard (Alimi Ballard), Richard Wilkins (Corey Page), and Tony Soleito (George Palermo).

Among the original characters there were Zoey (Joni Allen), Nick Rivers (Roscoe Born), Joey Soleito (James Sioutis), Bernard Castro (Philip Anthony-Rodriguez), Sydney Chase (Morgan Fairchild), Azure C (Carlotta Chang), and Molly Malone (Melissa Dye).

By 1996, several original cast members had already left the series, including Anthony-Rodriguez, Ballard, Chang, Dye, Fairchild, and Heinle.

The ratings dropped to 2.0 for the 1996–97 television season, and producers tried to gain viewers by crossing over Jane Elliot's popular General Hospital character Tracy Quartermaine, who first appeared in October 1996.

[3] The City ranked last out of 11 soap operas on the air as late as the first week of January 1997[7][3] even below newcomer Sunset Beach, but a stronger than expected finale month in March 1997, coupled with a ratings slide for newcomer Sunset Beach, saved The City from last place in the ratings for both of its two seasons on the air.