"‘A League of Their Own’ Canceled as Amazon Flips on Abbreviated Final Season"/ "‘The Peripheral’ Canceled; Prime Video Not Proceeding With Season 2 Amid Lengthy Strikes"

Aug. 18, 2023: This is from my Aug. 2023 blog post: My 2nd prediction came true:

"The CW Sets Acquisition-Heavy 2023-24 Schedule"/ "ABC Fall Schedule Shocker: Entire Scripted Slate MIA as Writers' Strike Imperils New TV Season"

Jul. 30, 2023 My predictions: 

1. I predict the writers and actors strike is going to last until 2024.

2. I predict that there are TV shows that are renewed in 2023, will end up getting cancelled before the new season is filmed.

That has happened to the show Stumptown.  

Sept. 16, 2020 "‘Stumptown’ Canceled at ABC Despite Season 2 Renewal Due to COVID-19 Pandemic": This article is by Joe Otterson on Variety: 

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/stumptown-canceled-at-abc-despite-season-2-renewal-due-to-covid-19-pandemic-1234772770/

http://badcb.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-cw-sets-acquisition-heavy-2023-24.html

I then found these articles of these TV shows that got cancelled because of the writers and actors strikes:

"‘A League of Their Own’ Canceled as Amazon Flips on Abbreviated Final Season": Today I found this article by Lesley Goldberg on the Hollywood Reporter:

Amazon is removing A League of Their Own from its scripted lineup.

The retail giant and streamer has reversed course and canceled the queer-themed reboot of Penny Marshall’s 1992 film after previously renewing the series for a four-episode second and final season.

The decision to cancel the series from co-creators/showrunners Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson (who also starred) comes as Hollywood’s first dual strikes since the 1960s has brought production to a standstill.

Graham and Jacobson fought to get the series a second season as Amazon and producers Sony Pictures Television negotiated to lower the show’s licensing fee. 

Writing for the four-episode “limited series” started in the spring and was derailed as writers and performers seek fair wages from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Reps for Amazon note that the strikes would have delayed the arrival of the series — along with the also un-renewed The Peripheral — to 2025, when the subscription platform already has a heavy roster of originals.

In the works since early 2018, Graham recruited Jacobson (Broad City) for the more modern take on Penny Marshall’s beloved 1992 feature film that starred Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell and Tom Hanks. 

Graham and Jacobson received Marshall’s blessing on their updated take before she passed away. The duo also recruited several members of the former AAGPBL to serve as advisers — including the legendary Blair, who at age 95 came out as gay during the press tour for the show.

The series starring Jacobson, D’Arcy Carden, Chante Adams, Melanie Field and Kate Berlant builds on the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nods to sexuality and racism that were briefly featured in Marshall’s movie. 

In addition to featuring stories of queer players from the league, the Amazon take also examines the plight of Black women who were not permitted to join the league and were part of another contingent of teams that traveled the country.

The eight-episode first season bowed at once in August to positive reviews; it currently boasts an impressive 94 percent rating among critics and 87 percent score with viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. 

The show also has earned recognition from 

GLAAD (outstanding new TV series), 

the Independent Spirit Awards (for supporting actress Gbemisola Ikumelo) 

and with the NAACP Image Awards (costume design). 

It was also honored by the Critics Choice Association, 

earning the women’s committee seal of female empowerment in entertainment, 

the National Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign, 

and the Voice and Visibility Award from the National Council of La Raza.

As THR reported earlier this year in a larger look under the hood at Amazon, several insiders at the retail giant/streamer said its reliance on testing and data led to a clash last summer between Graham and marketing execs after data showed audiences found League’s queer stories off-putting and suggested downplaying those themes in materials promoting the show.

Graham expressed concern about bias built into Amazon’s system for evaluating shows, which multiple sources said often ranked broad series featuring straight, white male leads above all others. 

One executive calls A League of Their Own “a proxy for how diverse and inclusive shows are treated.” Graham subsequently launched into an interrogation of the system, questioning multiple executives about it. 

Amazon took the issue seriously and dropped the system of ranking shows based on audience scores. 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/a-league-of-their-own-canceled-as-amazon-flips-on-abbreviated-final-season-1235570207/

"‘The Peripheral’ Canceled; Prime Video Not Proceeding With Season 2 Amid Lengthy Strikes": Today I found this article by Nellie Andreeva on Deadline:

EXCLUSIVE: Prime Video will not be going forward with the previously ordered second season of its sci-fi drama series The Peripheral, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Deadline has learned.

I hear The Peripheral is not the only Amazon scripted series whose renewal has been rescinded and there is at least one other series that won’t go to a second season.

According to sources, the cancellation stems from the length of the work stoppage due to the ongoing WGA strike, now in its 109th day, and the SAG-AFTRA strike, in Day 36, which have delayed production, creating large gaps between seasons and making shows miss their target release dates.

While this is the first known case of a renewal reversal amid the current strike, as Deadline reported earlier this week, 

there may be more series whose renewals could be rescinded or pending pickups not happen if the work stoppage stretches past Labor Day, 

with freshman series going into Season 2 the most vulnerable. 

There was a similar string of unrenewals during the pandemic.

The Peripheral’s first season was released in fall 2022; the sci-fi drama loosely based on the book of that name, was renewed for Season 2 in February.

I hear the series was supposed to go into production this year for a 2024 release and it was in early pre-production when the WGA strike started May 2.

Such a delay would impact Amazon’s pipeline as there are already plans in place for 2025 content rollout. 

Additionally, first-year shows have harder time keeping viewers who’d tuned in and liked what they saw if they have have to wait a long time — three years in this case — for new episodes.

While Amazon, along with other streamers, does not reveal viewership information, The Peripheral is believed to have done well on the platform.

Still, as a large-scope sci-fi drama, it is expensive, and a delay is incurring charges that are being added to the budget, including for holding stages. Additionally, because the series had only aired one season, there would have to be a marketing campaign around its return that also would have to be factored in.

It is not surprising that series renewed for a second season were hit disproportionally harder by pickup reversals and cancellations after the pandemic shut down production for months, creating big gaps between seasons. 

While there were other contributing factors too, most of the unrenewed series during Covid were headed to Season 2, including Netflix’s The Society and I’m Not OK With This as well as Showtime’s On Becoming a God in Central Florida and ABC’s Stumptown.

Additionally, the strikes coincide with a period of increased financial scrutiny among most media companies, which have been recalibrating their streaming strategies.

The Peripheral is produced by Amazon Studios and Warner Bros. Television, in association with Kilter Films.

Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films has another series, the first under the company’s deal with Amazon Studios, Fallout, which has been getting strong early buzz.

The Peripheral centers on Flynne Fisher (Moretz), a woman trying to hold together the pieces of her broken family in a forgotten corner of tomorrow’s America. Flynne is smart, ambitious, and doomed. She has no future; until the future comes calling for her.

Season one also starred Jack Reynor, Gary Carr, Eli Goree, Louis Herthum, JJ Feild, T’Nia Miller, Charlotte Riley, Alexandra Billings, Adelind Horan, Alex Hernandez, Katie Leung, Julian Moore-Cook, Melinda Page Hamilton, Chris Coy, and Austin Rising.

Executive producers for The Peripheral are creator and showrunner Scott B. Smith, director Vincenzo Natali, Nolan and Joy, Athena Wickham, and Steven Hoban.

https://deadline.com/2023/08/the-peripheral-canceled-unrenewed-season-2-strikes-amazon-1235454772/