Due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, production for television series across the world has witnessed a multiple month-long shutdown period. However, throughout this difficult time, a wide variety of TV favorites received the announcement that they were to be renewed for a new season by their parent networks or streaming platforms. Unfortunately, this cannot be said for all television series as multiple met their untimely ends.
While some networks spanned their renewal announcements over a few weeks or months, FX announced the renewals of many of its top series within a short window of time. Newcomers to the network, the Martin Freeman (The World’s End) series Breeders and Lil Dicky’s Dave, received renewal for their respective second seasons. Additionally, the Vampire mockumentary series What We Do in the Shadows, based on a Taika Waititi (JoJo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok) film under the same name, was also renewed for its third season. However, a recent development for the show saw one of the film’s stars and series’ showrunners, Jermaine Clement (Men in Black 3), announced his departure from the series’ writing team for the ensuing season. Furthermore, critically acclaimed shows such as Better Things and The Weekly also received renewal for a fifth and second season, respectively. Also, the long-running horror anthology series American Horror Story will have a spin-off series entitled American Horror Stories. Lastly, FX announced that the comedy It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will return for fifteen season, making the program the first live-action comedy series to reach the fifteenth season.
Adding to the list of renewals, animated series Adult Swim’s Tuca and Bertie and FOX’s Bob’s Burgers received their renewal for second and eleventh season respectively. For premium networks, Starz released the news that the former Youtube Premium series’ Step Up, based on the film franchise under the same name, will be added to its premium network schedule and will produce its third season. Starz also announced that it has renewed its crime drama Hightown for second season as well. In terms of cable networks, NBC announced that newcomer Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist starring Jane Levy (Suburgatory) will be back for a second season. Meanwhile, BBC announced that its spy drama The Capture will also return for second season, as well as CBS announcing that the long-running daytime drama, The Bold and the Beautiful, will be back for its 34th and 35th seasons. Additionally, two of Tyler Perry’s (Gone Girl) series, Sistas and The Oval, on BET also received renewals for each of their second seasons.
Finally, ABC announced thirteen of its series to be renewed in a singular announcement which included the likes of season three for one of its dramas, A Million Little Things. ABC also announced that black-ish starring Anthony Anderson (The Departed) will be back for its seventh season. Furthermore, Freeform, an ABC-owned network, announced that it renewed comedy Everything’s Gonna Be Okay and drama Motherland: Fort Salem for their second seasons as well.
For streaming services, the newly launched Warner Media platform, HBO Max, announced that one of its first original scripted series, the anthology series Love Life starring Anna Kendrick, will be returning for second season. Additionally, Amazon picked up the Anna Paquin (True Blood) series Flack for a second season following its cancellation on Pop TV earlier this year. Furthermore, Disney+ announced one of its originals, Diary of Future President, will be coming back for a second season after premiering back in January 2020. Meanwhile, streaming giant Netflix announced that the America Ferrera (Superstore, Ugly Betty) executive produced series Gentefied will be back for second season in addition to signing Lucifer star Tom Ellis (Miranda) to a deal for a potential sixth season of the aforementioned crime drama.
Despite the overwhelming good news for many actors, showrunners, directors, and other key contributors in these series mentioned, networks have also begun to announce a few cancellations in their program schedules. NBC recently announced that it has canceled two of its series, Perfect Harmony and Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector. One of NBC’s associated networks, USA, also announced pair of cancellations in the film-to-TV adaptation series of The Purge and Treadstone which was set in the Jason Bourne Universe. Furthermore, FOX announced the cancellation of the Jason Biggs (American Pie) sitcom Outmatched. Also, Paramount Network announced the cancellation of the long-running reality television show Cops following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department and global peaceful protests for Black Lives Matter against police brutality and systemic racism. In terms of streaming, Netflix has released news that the sketch comedy series Astronomy Club has been canceled after its first season in addition to Hulu stating that its originals Harlots and Reprisal have also witnessed their cancellations following their third and first seasons respectively.