Amazon has had quite a year. Last December, the studio announced it would not be renewing Good Girls Revolt after just one season. Then this past October, they suspended Roy Price, the studio head, after receiving a complaint about alleged sexual harassment. At the time of the cancellation, the show's creator, Dana Calvo, claimed Price canceled the show because he was never a fan (an Amazon spokesperson, meanwhile, said the ratings were poor).
One way to move on from the bad press the cancellation of GGR garnered would be to make a commitment to women and women-led shows going forward — much like it did with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — so why did Amazon just pass on all three women-led pilots from pilot season?
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According to Entertainment Weekly, Glenn Close's Sea Oak, Bridget Everett's Love You More, and Diarra Kilpatrick's The Climb were not picked up. These weren't just three of the options, they were the only options, and according to Deadline, the futures of current women-dominated Amazon series One Mississippi and I Love Dick are also unclear.
This is a purposeful move. All the way back in August, Price warned that Amazon would be moving away from pilots in favor of the faster straight-to-series orders.
"The reality of the marketplace is it’s competitive and often you just have to go to series, both from a timing point of view and from a competitive point of view," he told Deadline. "We still have customer feedback, but will probably have fewer pilots for sure."
In addition to this shift, Amazon is now in what Deadline calls a "major executive overhaul" following Price's removal, but wouldn't you think, in light of the past few months, the company would perhaps take a pause to reassess a few things? Namely, how can we make an effort to uplift more female voices?
After all, viewers have made it pretty clear that's the direction they want the company to be heading towards. Following news of allegations against Price, Twitter rose up to demand Good Girls Revolt be resurrected. Now that's not happening, but Maisel's runaway success and Golden Globe nomination proves a woman-led series can be a hit for the studio. It's not enough for us to say things need to change. It's up to companies like Amazon to make it happen.
Refinery29 has reached out to Amazon for comment.