SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Monday's recap from the TCA Winter 2020 Press Tour had Showtime and Pop going. Up first, SHOWTIME has ordered a ten-episode second season of The L Word: Generation Q, the sequel to the groundbreaking drama series The L Word. SHOWTIME has picked up a second season of the critically acclaimed comedy series Work in Progress. Created and written by Chicago improv mainstays Abby McEnany and Tim Mason and co-written by Lilly Wachowski (The Matrix), the series stars McEnany as a fictionalized version of herself whose misfortune and despair unexpectedly lead her to a vibrantly transformative relationship. SHOWTIME has announced that the ten-episode second season of its acclaimed comedy series Black Monday will debut with back-to-back episodes each week beginning on Sunday, March 15th from 10 to 11 p.m. ET/PT. SHOWTIME announced that season five of the hit drama series Billions will premiere on Sunday, May 3 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Starring Oscar(R) nominee and Emmy(R) and Golden Globe(R) winner Paul Giamatti and Emmy and Golden Globe winner Damian Lewis.

SHOWTIME has announced that the third season of its drama series The Chi, which will feature series creator and Emmy(R) winner Lena Waithe (Queen & Slim, Boomerang) in a multi-episode arc as a Chicago mayoral candidate, will debut on Sunday, July 5 at 10 p.m. SHOWTIME has announced that the highly anticipated series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels will premiere on Sunday, April 26 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, while Emmy(R)-winning documentary series Vice, known for delivering longform, on-the-ground journalism and newsworthy explorations of our world today, will premiere across all SHOWTIME platforms on Sunday, March 29, at 8 p.m. And finally, the network has picked up an 11th and final season of its hit comedy series Shameless premiering this summer.

After a celebrated new season pickup following a passionate fan campaign, Pop TV announced that the acclaimed series One Day at a Time, will return on Tuesday, March 24 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT, following all new-episodes of the final season of Schitt's Creek before moving to 9 p.m. ET/PT, starting on April 14. Produced by Sony Pictures Television, the award-winning comedy inspired by Emmy(R) winner Norman Lear's 1975 series of the same name will continue to tell the story of the Cuban American Alvarez family throughout 13 original episodes. This season will find Penelope (Screen Actors Guild Award(R) winner Justina Machado) exploring a surprising relationship, her mother Lydia (Emmy, Grammy(R), Oscar(R) and Tony(R) winner Rita Moreno) experiencing a religious crisis - as well as revealing the details of her surprise trip to Cuba with Dr. Berkowitz (Stephen Tobolowsky), and Schneider (Todd Grinnell) finding his relationship with Avery (India de Beaufort) growing deeper. Meanwhile, Elena (Isabella Gomez) begins to prepare for college and Alex (Marcel Ruiz) starts to date.
One Day at a Time joins Pop TV's slate of bold comedies with a point of view including the final season of Emmy-nominated Schitt's Creek, the critically acclaimed Florida Girls, and Flack starring Oscar winner Anna Paquin.

#Blessed. Pop TV announced that it has ordered the miraculous new comedy pilot Mother Mary, a modern twist on one of the famous stories ever told. The project is conceived by CBS Television Studios, written by Casey Feigh (What We Do in the Shadows), Dan Gregor (How I Met Your Mother) and Betsy Sodaro (Disjointed) and executive produced by Emmy(R) and Golden Globe(R) winner Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) along with Tony Hernandez and Brooke Posch of Jax Media (Broad City, Russian Doll, Florida Girls), and Feigh, Gregor and Sodaro. Crisis averted! Pop TV announced the return of the dark comedy Flack, set in the world of a celebrity crisis PR firm, starring Academy Award(R) and Golden Globe(R) winner and Emmy(R)-nominated actress Anna Paquin (True Blood, The Affair). The six-episode season will premiere on Friday, March 13 at 10 p.m. ET/PT and features new cast members Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated actor Sam Neill, Screen Actors Guild Award(R) winner Daniel Dae Kim and guest star Emmy-winner Martha Plimpton.

Season 10 of Complex's longest-running and award-winning series, Sneaker Shopping, returns this week with superstars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Host Joe La Puma takes the dynamic duo through Stadium Goods in NYC where they chat setting trends on their sitcoms (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Martin), getting their own sneaker collabs and footwear choices in Bad Boys for Life. The episode is now live on Complex's YouTube. As the host of Sneaker Shopping, Joe La Puma gives fans a sneak peek into the personal lives of the biggest names in music, sports, and pop culture from the feet up, sharing their lives, careers, and personal tastes with La Puma through the lens of sneakers and style.

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

Upfronts ended a few weeks ago, but there's still some renewal and cancellations that networks have yet to figure out. One of those was AP Bio, until NBC announced they decided to cancel the series this week. It's a decision that doesn't come with much surprise. AP Bio had a mediocre-rated first season, but NBC decided to give the show a second chance, as they've done before with shows that had slow starts like 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation and Community. While those shows wound up running for years, AP Bio's ratings actually dropped drastically in its second season, so NBC pulling the plug is not a surprise. However, it is a shame. AP Bio wasn't necessarily a great sitcom, but it was a very enjoyable one that was perhaps on the way to finding its greatness.

AP Bio started off seeming like a too-mean spin off of Community, a show that wanted to have a cable comedy-esque streak of dark comedy but didn't have the talent to pull it off. However, over the course of the first and especially into the much improved second season, the series began to find its direction by strengthening the personalities of its students out of stereotypes and pinning down into humor sense. The show, like Community, also found some heart, without feeling too preachy, and was becoming a delightfully absurdist network sitcom that actually made you care about the characters...even though the humor could sometimes be dark or even borderline mean, the show did a much better job of tiptoeing that line in its second season. It will be a shame to see it go, and that it will never take off into the great sitcom it had the potential to be.

Showtime has ordered an eight-episode season of the new half-hour comedy series Work in Progress, created by Abby McEnany and Tim Mason. McEnany stars in the series, expected to premiere later this year. Mason directed the pilot. Lilly Wachowski (The Matrix, Sense8) will co-write the first season and executive produce with McEnany and Mason. Showtime acquired the project after its premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival, where it was an official selection of the Indie Episodic program. A funny and uniquely human comedy, Work in Progress features McEnany as a 45-year-old self-identified fat, queer dyke from Chicago whose misfortune and despair unexpectedly lead her to a vibrantly transformative relationship. Chicago-based performers Theo Germaine and Karin Anglin co-star alongside Celeste Pechous, with Julia Sweeney (Saturday Night Live, Shrill) appearing in a crucial role as herself.