By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 28, 2023
It has not been a particularly eventful week in renewals and cancellations. Next week — if there is a writers’ strike — may be more in flux.
Disney+ has canceled National Treasure: Edge of History after one season. A National Treasure series without Nic Cage was going to be an uphill battle. Moreover, while I may be missing something, I get the sense that Disney is not doing well on the TV side of things outside of Star Wars and Marvel. The Mysterious Benedict Society, Diary of a Future President, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, and Big Shot only lasted two seasons, while Turner and Hooch, Willow, and The Right Stuff were cancelled after a single season.
This is not exactly a cancellation, but Netflix has renewed Big Mouth for an eighth and final season, which makes it one of — if not the — longest-running series in Netflix history. Its spin-off, Human Resources, will also end after its forthcoming second season.
Over on Apple TV+, they are canceling Truth Be Told after three seasons. I am surprised it lasted as long as it did considering how mediocre the first season was — it’s hard to imagine writing so bad that even Octavia Spencer can’t save it. I pushed on into the second season but bailed a few episodes in despite the presence of Kate Hudson.
Elsewhere, Facebook has canceled Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk as the social network is finally giving up on original programming. Red Table Talk, which is best known for airing drama out of Will Smith’s family, will be shopped around to other streamers.
Finally, Coach Prime, which hasn’t yet aired its first season, has been renewed already for a second season. The docuseries will follow Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders in his first season as head coach for the University of Colorado, where I understand he’s basically scrapping the team and starting fresh, which has meant pushing a lot of players into the transfer portal. It’s understandable when a professional team fires a lot of players and brings in new ones (see Welcome to Wrexham), but it feels icky that a college is doing so. But then again, college football is a huge moneymaker. Deion, meanwhile, will invariably be an entertaining presence.