Why ABC Canceled Gina Rodriguez's Not Dead Yet

Television shows, especially comedies, centred around Latino characters have certainly been on the rise in recent years — "This Fool" and "Primo" are just two of the many that I instantly fell in love with — but for some reason, most of them seem to have a brief shelf life. Frankly, it's kind of a miracle that the Gina Rodriguez-led comedy-drama on CW, "Jane the Virgin," managed to remain on air for five years between 2014 and 2019. However, the actress's more recent sitcom, "Not Dead Yet," on ABC wasn't as lucky.

Despite the mixed reviews from critics, the show's ratings were pretty great during the debut season, making it the most-watched comedy on the channel in 2023. Rodriguez's character, Nell Serrano, a broke and newly single journalist, must have resonated with viewers as she was trying to build a new life on the ruins of her old one. After a 10-year break, she returned to her old job at SoCal Independent, where the only work she could get was writing obituaries (not exactly her forte). And that's become even harder when she suddenly began to see the ghosts of the people she was meant to write about. On top of all that, she also had to share an apartment with a control-freak roommate, Edward (Rick Glassman), who made her already miserable life even worse.

That's a pretty juicy setup for a sitcom, which propelled the 13-episode freshman season to success. But the follow-up season (which ended up being reduced to 10 episodes) simply couldn't hold viewer interest and eventually tanked quite hard.

Whether it was the slight change in the narrative that put viewers off or something else, season 2 just couldn't produce the same numbers as its predecessor. Thus, in May 2024, ABC unceremoniously canceled "Not Dead Yet" after two seasons. Apparently, this decision was far from coming out of nowhere. Deadline's Editor-in-Chief of the TV section kind of saw this coming when she wrote, "The single-camera 'Not Dead Yet' is heavily on the bubble. Its ratings have been soft, making for some bleak prospects, though the series starring Gina Rodriguez is said to have its supporters internally and could potentially find a spot next season based on ABC's scheduling needs."

The David Windsor and Casey Johnson-created sitcom (based on Alexandra Potter's 2020 novel, "Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up") had no such luck and had to close the curtain on Nell's potential future adventures. If it's any consolation, Apple TV+'s hit show "Acapulco," set in Malibu and filled with Latin vibes, is about to air its fourth and final season this month. But if you ask me and want some unadulterated and laugh-out-loud comedies centering Latinos in America, you should give a chance to "This Fool" and "Primo."