Why has Great News been cancelled?

I first heard about Great News after scrolling through Tina Fey’s pretty impressive IMDb page, watched a trailer for the show and it had me hooked and excited to watch.

The show was first aired in January 2017 on NBC, but I didn’t find the show until early 2018, as trying to watch an American television programme in the UK is very difficult, but, with the help of streaming services it helps broadcast them all over the globe. After binging Schitts Creek, I spotted that Great News was added onto Netflix and I immediately started watching.

My initial reaction was that it was well conformed to the style of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, just like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which can be seen through the cast and characters, the episode to episode narrative and the light hearted comedy. The first season left me wanting more and it had already found a special place in my heart.

Great News is set in the world of television news which follows one of the producers who finds herself dealing with a new intern: her mother. The shows also follows the two anchors of ‘The Breakdown’: Chuck Pierce played by the incredible John Michael Higgins and Portia Scott-Griffith, played by Nicole Richie.

The theme of relationships is very significant in the show which can be seen through the romance of Greg and Katie, the mother-daughter relationship between Katie and Carol and the oddly charming dynamic of Chuck and Portia. Great News showed that the characters and the relationships between them were what held the show together.

In Tracy Wigfield’s first creation, I knew what she was going for, a light hearted comedy that the viewers can fall in love with and just like her writing in 30 Rock, you could just watch an episode and forget about anything else in the world.

I finished the second season and immediately searched to see if there was a season three, but unfortunately, NBC had decided to cancel the show on the 11th May 2018, exactly a year after they renewed if for its second season.

My initial thoughts were anger, then I wondered why they had cancelled it. I came to the realization that maybe NBC wasn’t the right platform for the show, especially in the technological age we are living in right now. NBC is well known for it’s sitcoms and when 30 Rock, The Office and Parks & Recreation were all broadcasted streaming services didn’t exist and televisions were the only things available to watch the show on. Take Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt for example,  Netflix have been creating the show for over 3 years now and if it was broadcasted onto NBC, I don’t think it would do very well. Maybe if Netflix picked up Great News, it might do better and form a greater fan base and an increased amount of viewers.

Great News is a wonderful show that I will miss extremely much and if was to ever return I would be very happy and excited to see what will happen.