Pop TV rescued One Day at a Time for its "untapped potential" after Netflix's cancelation

The New York Times

The beloved sitcom makes its debut on Pop TV tonight one year after Netflix's cancelation sparked fan and critic outrage. In response to the cancelation, Sony Pictures Television president Jeff Frost vowed to keep One Day at at a Time alive. “I wasn’t going to rest until we found a new home for the show,” he said. “It’s not just an entertainment show. It transcends that.” Meanwhile, Pop TV was looking for a high-profile show to replace Schitt's Creek, which at the time was about the announce its sixth and final season. Netflix repeatedly stated that One Day a Time was canceled because its viewership was too low. But David Nevins, the chief creative officer of CBS and chief executive of Showtime Networks, who oversees Pop TV, saw opportunity in the Netflix comedy. "I think Netflix clearly has a model where they feel they’re getting value out of (shows) in the first couple of seasons and they don’t have that much incentive to go the long haul,” he said. That may be the right decision in many cases, he added, but “the programmer in me thought it had untapped potential.” But as a cable network, Pop TV had to offer less money to buy the rights to One Day at a Time. "It really took Sony coming down as far as they could — and where it still made sense for them — and it took us going up as high as we’ve ever gone,” said Pop TV president Brad Schwartz, without divulging numbers. Schwartz believes One Day a Time's viewership could approach Season 4 of Schitt's Creek: roughly 3.3 million viewers. Gloria Calderón Kellett and Mike Royce, who created the revival, say the Pop TV version will stay true to the show’s roots of socially conscious comedy. "Keep doing what you’re doing," Schwartz said he wrote in his first email to the showrunners. "We’re making this show because we love it."

ALSO:

• One Day at a Time only filmed six episodes before the coronavirus shutdown, the last two without an audience: The cast and crew have been doing some work remotely, including filming an #AloneTogether video. “The cast is so good now,” says co-showrunner Mike Royce. “They know their characters so well. They know the rhythm of the show. Everybody knows what they’re doing so they can act as though an audience is there. It’s of course not ideal, but they don’t really lose a step. It’s, you know, it’s a temporary situation that kind of has to occur when there’s not an audience there."