Variety reports that Lifetime’s Devious Maids will not come back for a fifth season.
Devious Maids was a serialized look at the lives of five women: Marisol (played by Ana Ortiz), Carmen (Roselyn Sánchez), Rosie (Dania Ramírez), and Zoila (Judy Reyes, formerly of ABC/NBC’s Scrubs). Naturally they were the “devious maids” in question, and the show followed their exploits, issues, and connections between their fellow maids and their ludicrous employers.
The show was conceptualized by Marc Cherry, who ran a similar drama-intensive program in the early 2000s, Desperate Housewives. While Desperate Housewives aired on ABC, ABC Studios worked alongside Cherry to produce Devious Maids. Cherry’s former star, Eva Longoria, also served as an executive producer for the Lifetime series.
Previously, Devious Maids was one of two scripted dramas for the channel. UnREAL, the other scripted program, details the behind-the-scenes chaos that happens on a reality dating show. UnREAL has only recently finished their second season, and while the ratings have been unassuming, the show has received very positive acclaim from critics, even earning an Emmy nomination in 2016.
Devious Maids has taken an alternate path; although it opened big, with 3 million live viewers for the first season, it regularly lost viewers throughout the years. However, it must be noted that Devious Maids did hold their audience during their final season. The lack of viewers regrettably made the decision to cancel Devious Maids easier.
Deadline also reports that Devious Maids was a project left over from a previous angle worked by Lifetime. The channel has been working towards a new direction since Devious Maids’ inception, which can be easily recognized by the striking departure that UnREAL brings to the network. Currently, Lifetime is developing two more drama pilots to hopefully support their scripted department: an anthology series named A Midsummer’s Nightmare and a supernatural potential series called Sea Change.
Devious Maids aired their final episode on August 8, 2016.