One Day At a Time canceled again at new home Pop

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Fan-favorite comedy series, One Day a Time, has been canceled by its second home. The show, a reimagining of Norman Lear’s beloved 1970s sitcom, began its life at Netflix before being canceled by the streamer after its third season. Recognizing the series' popularity with its target audience, the show was picked up by Pop for a fourth season but due to a lot of changes after a merger between CBS and Viacom, the beloved comedy has found itself crossing cancellation lines again.

The good news is that the studio behind the reboot, Sony Pictures TV, plans to shop the show to other outlets. At the Netflix cancellation, One Day At a Time was shopped in a similar situation to Pop. The deal was complex and involved airing encore episodes on CBS but, at the time, Pop was also riding on the late in the game success of Schitt's Creek and was looking to build its scripted programming. This all changed when CBS and Viacom merged and Pop moved from the CBS to the Viacom side of the company, joining Chris McCarthy’s Entertainment & Youth division. Pop has since pulled away from original scripted programming; following the end of Schitt’s Creek which meant that One Day at a Time was the network’s last remaining scripted series.

Sony Pictures TV plans to exhaust every avenue for keeping One Day at a Time alive. The studio has options on the cast until the end of December and the cast, which includes, Justina Machado, Todd Grinnell, Izabella Gomez, Marcel Ruiz, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Rita Moreno, are in full support of finding the show a new home and sticking it out as long as they can. Gloria Calderón Kellett, who co-created the reboot with Mike Royce, had this to say about the cancellation and holding out optimistic hope that they will find a new home:

"I’m not sad just yet, y’all. We still have some hope for new homes, Hang tight, my loves. You know that if I go down, I will go down singing for this show (& cast & crew) I love."

Season 4 of One Day at a Time, which was cut short by the pandemic, was simulcast on Pop and sibling TV Land. The series, a reimagining of Lear's series with a Latino family, did significantly better on classic sitcoms-focused TV Land, raising speculation that, if One Day at a Time was renewed, it would move to TV Land. The bigger test, as it turns out, the real test was its recent run on CBS, 45 years after Lear’s original premiered on the network. The numbers weren't as strong on CBS but there is a case for the show to find another home. The show had a devoted audience on Netflix but the streamer wanted to develop other shows and One Day At a Time ultimately paid the price. Perhaps their lost, and now Pop's will be another network or service's gain. 

Did YOU watch One Day at a Time? Do YOU think it will be picked up again by another outlet?