New year, more status updates coming your way in the TV department. If you’re keeping count, this is our fifth look at the current status on your favorite new and returning TV shows this season. This next batch is nominated by renewals, but some of you might want to brace yourself as there are some cancellations in the mix.
CBS is ready to say goodbye to Chuck Lorre’s sitcom Mike & Molly. Its sixth season, which currently airs Wednesday nights, will be its last. The show served as a strong comedic vehicle for Melissa McCarthy who has gone on to become a mega movie star. The Bridesmaids and Spy star can next be seen in Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters.
NBC cancelled Heroes. Then it came back as a limited “event” series dubbed Heroes Reborn. And now it’s bidding farewell to the world once more. Peacock head Robert Greenblatt elaborated at the Television Critics Association winter press tour that Reborn was always envisioned to be a one-and-done “event.” Though the upcoming 13th episode of Reborn will likely serve as the series finale for the comeback franchise, Greenblatt isn’t calling time of death just yet. He’s leaving that up to creator Tim Kring’s discretion; if Kring comes up with a new idea worthy of resurrecting the series for a second time, NBC will hear him out, reports TVLine.
For more, jump after the break.
Fox is greenlighting a second season for Ryan Murphy’s horror-comedy series Scream Queens. Before it even debuted, Murphy revealed that his Glee followup on Fox would be an anthology series and he’s making good on that promise. Scream Queens season 2 is ditching some of its original cast (a majority of the characters died last season anyway) and moving from a school setting to a hospital, “where some of the most fascinating and bizarre medical cases are under observation,” reports Deadline. The following actors are expected back to reprise their season 1 roles, according to Deadline: Jamie Lee Curtis (Dean Munsch), Emma Roberts (Chanel), Lea Michele (Hester), Abigail Breslin (Chanel #5); Keke Palmer (Zayday), and Billie Lourd (Chanel #3). Despite its low Neilson ratings, Scream Queens performed very well non-linearly streaming online. Elsewhere on the Fox network (and no surprise here), Empire has been renewed for a third season.
HBO and series creator and star Lena Dunham are dressing up Girls for its final run of episodes. The dramedy returns for its fifth season next month, and then we’ll be heading into the series’ sixth and final season in 2017. This isn’t so much a cancellation than it is Dunham deciding to close this chapter in her life. “I started working on this show when I was 23, and now I’m going to be 30 so it kind of feels right that this show kind of sandwiched my 20s and then I go off into the world,” she told radio station Z100. In sum, enjoy these final two seasons while they last!
Netflix, in following the same path as its Daredevil series, has renewed Marvel’s Jessica Jones for a second season. What’s great for fans is that we’ll have so much background and character depth in Hell’s Kitchen before heading into the Avengers-esque mini-series The Defenders which plans to bring together Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist sometime in the future. Elsewhere on the streaming service, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has been renewed for a third season ahead of its second season premiere set to stream April 15.
Over at NatGeo, Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s science-meets-pop culture talk show StarTalk will return for a third season next fall. The premiere will coincide with the release of Tyson’s next book, also named StarTalk after his podcast and talk show. Also coming back, and this one for a fifth season, is comedian Billy Eichner’s TruTV pop culture “game show” Billy on the Street.