Showtime has made a decision on its last remaining current scripted series whose fate had been up in the air, opting not to pick up a second season of comedy I Love That for You. The news comes a year after the Season 1 run of the show starring Vanessa Bayer, who co-created I Love That For You with Jeremy Beiler. The two serve as executive producers alongside showrunner Jessi Klein and Michael Showalter.
“I Love That for You has completed its run on Showtime,” a spokesperson for the network said in a statement. “We want to thank Vanessa, Jeremy and Jessi, along with the incredible cast and crew for their hard work and wish them the best going forward.”
As Deadline reported, there had been an internal effort to get the well received series renewed. I Love That For You co-star Matt Rogers claimed in December that a second season of the show had already been written. The company behind the series, Annapurna, is expected to shop it with Showtime’ support.
I Love That For You had been Showtime’s only comedy series until the network in February picked up Uncoupled, starring Neil Patrick Harris, following its cancellation by Netflix.
No Showtime series has been renewed since the early Season 3 pickup for Yellowjackets in December, weeks after the regime change at the network, with Chris McCarthy adding Showtime to his purview following the exit of longtime CEO David Nevins.
Over that period, Showtime has canceled Let the Right One In, American Gigolo, The L Word: Generation Q and now I Love That For You. The network also released complete seasons of new series Three Women, which landed at Starz; and fellow upcoming seres Ripley, which moved to Netflix, as well as a significant portion of its development.
In its new incarnation as Paramount+ with Showtime on linear and integrated into Paramount+ on digital, the network has shifted its programming strategy to three lanes outlined by McCarthy: Complex characters and subversive antiheroes like Dexter, Your Honor and Yellowjackets; High-stakes powerful worlds like Billions and Homeland; and Culturally diverse takes like The Chi and the upcoming Fellow Travelers.
There is also a focus on franchise building, with Showtime commissioning offshoots of Billions, Dexter and The L Word.
In I Love That For You, co-created and executive produced by Bayer and Jeremy Beiler, Bayer plays a character, inspired by her own past, who overcame childhood leukemia to achieve her dream of becoming a successful home-shopping channel host. Fellow SNL alum Molly Shannon also stars, along with Paul James, Ayden Mayeri, Punam Patel, Jenifer Lewis and Rogers.
In addition to Beiler, Bayer, Klein and Showalter, Season 1 was executive produced by Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, Jordana Mollick and Allyce Ozarski.
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