NBC pulls ‘Sunnyside’ from schedule, replaces it with ‘Will & Grace’ final season
NBC has decided to kick its freshman comedy “Sunnyside” to its digital platforms and replace it in the schedule with the 11th and final season of “Will & Grace.”
The veteran comedy had been due to debut season 11 in early 2020, however, the Peacock has bumped its premiere up to Thursday, Oct. 24 at 9:30 p.m., taking the slot from the Kal Penn comedy.
NBC has also ordered an additional episode of “Sunnyside” to increase the original order of 10 episodes to 11, however, it now seems highly unlikely that “Sunnyside” will see another series beyond its first on any platform. The remaining seven episodes of “Sunnyside” will air weekly on the NBC App, NBC.com and other digital platforms. The show is currently in production on episode nine and will finish production of all 11 episodes.
“Sunnyside” has struggled to find a sizable audience, garnering the lowest Live+Same Day ratings and total viewership of all the new shows across the big four networks. Through three episodes, the show is averaging a 0.36 rating among adults 18-49 and 1.4 million total viewers. That represents both the lowest average rating and total viewership for any NBC show so far this fall. Fellow freshman comedy is second bottom in terms of average rating with a 2.3, while “Sunnyside” lead-in “The Good Place,” which itself is bidding fairwell this season, is second lowest in total viewership at 2.2 million total viewers per episode.
The show centers around Garrett Modi (Penn), a disgraced former New York City Council wunderkind who is drummed out of office by drunken scandal and ineptitude. He’s forced to move back home with his sister in Sunnyside, where he winds up being hired by a local group of immigrants to help them navigate the path to becoming U.S. citizens.
Other than Penn, “Sunnyside” also stars Diana Maria Riva, Joel Kim Booster, Kiran Deol, Poppy Liu, Moses Storm and Samba Schutte.
Several “Sunnyside” stars have already taken to Twitter to share their reactions to the news.
To find out our show is getting pulled and replaced with an all-white cast ON Columbus Day? You can’t write this stuff folks. Our time slot literally got colonized!! https://t.co/uuUb3lDuTk
— Joel Kim Booster (@ihatejoelkim) October 16, 2019
To clarify: next week NBC has moved us to streaming, which has given the us all a new way to describe the only slightly problematic among us. Instead of a full cancelation you can now say a comedian has been “moved to https://t.co/E7nGHfP2mA” if they don’t say the FULL slur.
— Joel Kim Booster (@ihatejoelkim) October 16, 2019
Had a blast working on this show, with these people, and encourage y’all to watch our last televised ep this week and continue to support it online wherever it lands. Also DM me if you want to know how I really feel in a way I’m fully allowed to say.
— Joel Kim Booster (@ihatejoelkim) October 16, 2019
Penn and Matt Murray are writers and executive producers on the show, while “The Good Place” creator and veteran showrunner Michael Schur serves as a supervising executive producer. David Miner and Dan Spilo are also executive producers.
