Hey New Yorkers, Gossip Girl is here. But not anymore.
On January 19,2023, show-runner, Joshua Safran had announced that Gossip Girl was officially cancelled. It was met with a lot of surprise from fans and critics. The show was still airing their second season when the cancellation was announced.
Many different news outlets are reporting that the show was cancelled due to poor reviews of the second season versus the first. However, my own conclusion is the Warner Brothers and Discovery merger is the main culprits as well.
The Business Etiquette.
In early 2022, AT&T's WarnerMedia and Discovery had completed their company merger. A merger is when two big companies form their own companies into one entity. There is a lot of legalities and layoffs that require for the merger to go through. The merger was announced in May 2021. Around early 2022, many shows from the CW were mass cancelled. This included Legacies,Dynasty, Riverdale (I know I was surprised too), DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Batwoman, Naomi, Roswell: New Mexico, Charmed and many other shows on the network. The network is owned by both ViacomCBS and WarnerBrothers Discovery.
HBO Max and the Messiest rollout
On the topic of the the messy rollout, HBO Max has undergone a change in its rollout. Around August 2022, HBO Max began to start mass canceling their own scripted television shows. As well, the streaming service began to start taking down their own scripted content off the platform completely. This included the show Generation, that was praised for it's portrayal of Gen Z. As well, future projects were shut down; an example was the next Degrassi Reboot.
Gossip Girl: The First vs Second Season
The reboot was first announced It is no secret that the reboot was not well received by fans of the original series. The original had only been off the air for about 8.5 years. I did not watch the original as it aired as I was 5 when the pilot came out.
The pilot for the reboot opened with "All My Girls Like to Fight" by Hope Tala. It showed various characters getting ready to go to school after the pandemic academic year. We are introduced to the main characters of the show. The first season is messy with the writing and are making the characters too self aware of their wealth. The only realistic character was Monet de Haan portrayed by Savannah Smith. Monet was a supporting character in season 1 and upgraded to main cast in the second season. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a 38% rating.
The second season was opened to higher critical ratings. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a 90% rating. It is a big jump from the last season. Watching the season in real time definitely did help see the big differences in story value. The characters actually were acting like people. This season saw the return of Georgina Sparks and using name drops of past characters. The storylines were actually interesting and fun to keep up. I was actually kinda devastated that the show was cancelled the week before the finale. Watching the finale, I could really tell that it was heavily edited.
After The Cancellation
It is without saying that my devastation came from watching the show progress. I would see in real time that the show was trending constantly on Twitter and gaining traction on Tiktok. There was a Tiktok trend about how different people would rewrite the characters. Joshua Safran tweeted about shopping the series around but it was unlikely to gain a new home. Revivals for cancelled shows have happened before. One Day at A Time was cancelled by Netflix and was picked up by a cable network channel. This happened due to mass reactions from fans of the series. The reboot was tumultuous from the start and had a dramatic finish. However 3 months later, no one really talks about the show anymore.
Conclusion
The drama series was one of the many latest cancellations of many streaming service shows. The series is also a part of many other shows based on existing IP not making it based two seasons. Fate: The Winx Saga which is based on the Italian cartoon Winx Club was axed two months after their second season premiered. There is a weird phenomena in the television industry of killing shows with little to no promotion. Going to school in New York, I would see many posters for the first season and was constantly reminded to tune in for the premiere. But for the second season, there was the occasional poster on the bus stop. The show is still palatable if you have not seen the original.
Goodbye Gossip Girl. You will be missed.
XOXO
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