When it was announced that Good Girls Revolt had been cancelled by Amazon after just one season and despite high ratings, it was all very sketchy. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason behind the cancellation, although it was suggested that Amazon Studios head, Roy Price simply didn’t like the program.
Show creator Dana Calvo spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the cancellation, sharing some details that alluded to the interests of white men once again taking precedence over the greater good and the popular vote. Price did not attend the premiere of GGR. He never sent episode notes. He made it clear that he didn’t think the show would perform well during awards season. To say that he wasn’t a fan of GGR might be an understatement. Calvo noted, “All I know is that in the [season two] pitch, he asked us to refer to the characters by the actors' names because he didn't know the characters' names." How, Sway?
Still, Calvo and her crew overlooked Price’s indifference toward the show and, like us, were blindsided when GGR got the axe. Perhaps even moreso for them because they knew the show was doing well. THR says that Calvo used two sources to make the claim that GGR was “a hit:” their high rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the 55% of traffic they drove from Amazon’s entertainment section to their commerce site. Symphony Advanced Media cosigned on the show’s success as well.
But Amazon is refuting claims that GGR was doing as well as people think. Joe Lewis who leads their comedy and drama genres told THR, “We had high hopes for Good Girls Revolt, and have tremendous respect for the creators, cast and Sony, but I can tell you that the Symphony numbers being reported are wrong and that the show wasn’t performing at the levels we had hoped for — either in total viewership or completion rates."
Either way, GGR is being shopped around to other networks, hoping to be picked up by the December 31 deadline. Let’s hope that their new home isn’t, as Calvo describes Price and the Amazon culture, “impenetrable.” And please, learn the character's names.
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