Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
Fans of the Showtime half-hour series Black Monday and Work in Progress woke up to some very bad news from The Hollywood Reporter: Both critically acclaimed yet viewer challenged shows were given the boot by the pay channel service late this week, leaving behind some memorable episodes along with a few errant storylines that look never to be resolved.
Making it official, Work in Progress showrunner Lilly Wachowski took to Twitter this past Thursday to bemoan the loss of the Abby McEnany and Theo Germaine starring comedy: “Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I got the extremely disappointing news from the execs at Showtime that Work in Progress was not going to be picked up for a third season. It was a major bummer,” she explained, adding that contract renegotiations might have played a deciding factor in Showtime’s decision. “So the network was probably running the numbers and even though a show like ours, super contained, entirely shot on location in Chicago with mostly local talent, the bottom line did not work for them compared to our viewership, which could be optimistically defined as discerning/niche. We were told it went down from season 1 to season 2 (OK, very discerning!)”
Work in Progress followed the story of self-identified 45 year old “fat, queer dyke” whose downward turn suddenly starts coming up roses in the form of an exciting and rejuvenating relationship.
Black Monday meanwhile chronicled the story of the employees of a second-choice Wall Street trading firm known as the Jammer Group and the events leading up to the now infamous “Black Monday” of 1987 when international stock markets belly flopped majorly.
Showtime released a statement wishing the best for Work in Progress and Black Monday. Of the latter, the company said that they could indeed “confirm that Black Monday will not be moving forward with a fourth season. Don Cheadle, Regina Hall, Andrew Rannells, Paul Scheer and Casey Wilson led a fantastic cast, and we are grateful to Jordan Cahan, David Caspe and all who worked on the show for three hilarious seasons.”
Both Black Monday and Work in Progress were stacked top to bottom with amazing casts and production teams and it’s all but impossible to imagine a scenario where these talented folks don’t go on to bigger and better things; our best wishes for them all!
