EXCLUSIVE: It came down to the wire but the last outstanding scripted series on the Big 4 broadcast networks has learned its fate. Fox has handed a Season 4 renewal to The Cleaning Lady, starring Élodie Yung. According to sources, the order is for 12 episodes.
While expected, the renewal was not straight-forward and comes with a showrunner change, Deadline has learned. The series, a co-production between Warner Bros. Television and Fox Entertainment, had to pivot and adjust its storyline on the fly this season as it dealt with the tragic loss of its male lead, Adan Canto, who died of cancer.
Linear ratings for The Cleaning Lady — as well as Fox’s other original drama that aired new episodes this season, Alert: Missing Persons Unit — have been down double digits, with a lift of +131% from Live + Same Day to 3.6 million multi-platform viewers helping The Cleaning Lady to close the gap. (Alert also was renewed for Season 3 Friday.)
Additionally, the financials of the series are expected to improve significantly in Season 4 with no deficit and strong international revenue, making it a lucrative business proposition for the network, which is co-producing with lead studio WBTV.
Still, renewal negotiations between Fox and WBTV went on for weeks, down to the final day before Fox’s May 13 upfront presentation. I hear the episode count was one of the last outstanding issues, something that has been cropping up often as the broadcast networks try to cut costs by ordering fewer episodes of their series, which affects studios as the practice raises the per-episode budgets due to worse amortization rates.
Being at a crossroads and in a need of a revamp following Canto’s death, the Cleaning Lady is expected to head in a new creative direction next season, and Miranda Kwok, who developed the series, and Jeannine Renshaw who both served as showrunners of Season 3, will not be returning in that capacity. Search is underway for a new showrunner to succeed the duo, who navigated the complexity of production in difficult time for the show — and the industry, which is coming off a double strike amid a major disruption.
Kwok intends to focus on development with Warner Bros. Television.
Fox has three new drama series already slated for next season. Two of them, the John Wells-produced Rescue HI-Surf and medical drama Doc, starring Molly Parker, had been delayed by the strikes. The third drama newcomer, Canadian co-production Murder in a Small Town, is part of Fox’s international content initiative.
Additionally, held for next season are two drama series that were expected to air new seasons in 2023-24 but didn’t, in large part due to strike-related delays, 9-1-1: Lone Star and Accused.
The Cleaning Lady, hailed for its diverse cast as the first Southeast Asian-led drama, centers on Thony De La Rosa (Yung), a Cambodian-Filipino former surgeon who makes a living as a cleaning service worker alongside her sister-in-law, Fiona (Martha Millan). After witnessing a murder Thony is offered a job both as a cleaner and a doctor within a criminal organization that could pay well enough to help her son and her family.
In the current third season, the stakes for Thony are higher and more intense than ever, from losing her protector Arman (Canto), to Thony’s efforts to bring Fiona (Milan) back to the US after she was deported to the Philippines.
Eva De Dominici, Kate Del Castillo, Santiago Cabrera, Sean Lew, Faith Bryant, and Sebastien & Valentino LaSalle star in the series, based on an Argentine format.
Season 3, whose two-hour finale airs May 21, is executive produced by Kwok, Renshaw, Rose Marie Vega and Paola Suarez. Shay Mitchell and David Dean Portelli are executive consultants.
The post ‘The Cleaning Lady’ Renewed For Season 4 By Fox With New Leadership appeared first on Deadline.
