ABC Cancels 5 Series Including For Life, mixed-ish and Freshman Drama Rebel
The dreaded axe swung hard at ABC late Friday, with the Alphabet network cancelling five bubble series in total.
Among the casualties: Katey Sagal’s just-launched Rebel, sophomore legal drama For Life and ’80s-set black-ish spinoff mixed-ish (after two seasons). ABC also stuck a fork in veteran family sitcom American Housewife (full story here) and, as reported earlier today, Kyra Sedgwick’s freshman sitcom Call Your Mother.
The bloodletting comes just hours after ABC announced renewals for The Conners, Home Economics, The Rookie, A Million Little Things, The Goldbergs. The network also confirmed that black-ish will return for an eighth and final season. (View a complete list of ABC’s renewed and cancelled series here.)
The cancellation of high-profile Thursday entrant Rebel after just five episodes comes as a bit of surprise, given the series’ strong pedigree (it hails from Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19 showrunner Krista Vernoff.)
Sedgwick, meanwhile, appeared to blame Call Your Mother‘s untimely demise on the show’s chaotic scheduling, telling fans on Twitter, “You guys have been so wonderful to tune in every week, or every other week, or every two weeks! The rollout was nuts!”
TVLine’s 2021 Renewal Scorecard has been updated to reflect Friday’s spate of ABC cancellations.
Launch Gallery: 2021 Broadcast-TV Renewal Scorecard
