We’re at an interesting point of the 2024 TV schedule, where shows are either given new life or cut short by networks thanks to this season’s renewals and cancellations. Yesterday was a pretty good day on that front, thanks to Peacock’s Ted renewal putting Season 2 into the works.
That being said, today marks the departure of two shows from the ABC’s corner of the lineup, with The Conners coming to a close next season. But what really makes me mad is the fact that The Alphabet Network has swung that cancellation ax at one of my new favorite shows, killing it with a decisive blow. R.I.P. to Not Dead Yet.
The Conners Is Officially Ending With Season 7
Ahead of its Season 6 finale, set to air on May 22nd, The Wrap has announced that the long-running legacy-quel to Roseanne will take its final bow with its next season. What’s more, there will only be six episodes that make up our final stretch in Lanford, Illinois. Seeing as The Conners recently crossed the 100-episode mark, syndication is likely to make sure that this is not the last anyone sees of The Conners for some time.
Though the episode counts throughout the show’s history have been varied, the shortest run prior to this decision was Season 1, which only ran for 10 installments. As far as the John Goodman ensemble dramedy has been concerned, we did this same dance right before the Season 6 renewal. Those previous rumors already seemed to give the impression that the end was near, and with such a short span for The Conners’ big send off, I’m thinking one of two things happened.
One possible scenario is that these episodes were supposed to be in Season 6, and had to be moved due to the WGA/Writer’s Strikes of 2023. A combination of ratings and timing may have led to this handful of stories marking the proper ending place for The Conners’ journey. Or, these last six stories were greenlit along with Season 6 as a potential finale, as a contingency to allow the show to end on its own terms.
Which leads me to the news I’ve been fearing for a couple of weeks now. As The Conners’ end could be seen as a natural choice, the cancellation of Not Dead Yet after two seasons is one that I can only see as purely ratings based.
Not Dead Yet Is Now Dead, Fret!
Not too long ago Deadline labeled the Gina Rodriguez sitcom with one of the scariest three word designations a TV show can receive: “on the bubble.” When a project like Not Yet Dead is on the bubble, it’s in that horrific gray area where neither cancellation nor renewal are guaranteed.
In the case of the dramedy, where an obituary writer (Rodriguez) sees the subjects she’s writing about as she writes their final tributes, the writing was on the wall leading up to Season 2’s finale. So much so that in her own Instagram post promoting the now series finale, Gina shared the following message:
The reason I’m so mad that Not Dead Yet was canceled is because it earned its place as one of my new favorite shows. With a workplace comedy tinged by offbeat characters and a sometimes bittersweet gimmick, I was getting comfortable with Nell Serrano and the rest of the characters orbiting the SoCal Independent offices.
Season 2 even made the smart move of not continuing to make the obituary subjects the main focus of the episodes. This move still allowed for a fantastic roster of guest stars, while allowing us to get to know the core characters of Not Dead Yet’s cast all the better. But alas, creators Casey Johnson & David Windsor’s series, based off of author Alexandra Potter’s novel Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up, is now in the cancellation graveyard.
Short of a miracle, or say a huge influx in Hulu subscription holders streaming as much Not Dead Yet as they can possibly take, it looks like this is the final deadline for the SoCal Independent. As any experienced TV fan will tell you, show cancellations are definitely a way of life. And while I’m diametrically thrilled that Will Trent’s status as a “fun drama” has its Season 3 renewal locked up, this is some news that stings.
