Max and Apple TV Plus cancel two hit shows despite near perfect Rotten Tomatoes scores
It’s the end of the road for two music-focused shows as the curtain falls on Rap Sh!t and Schmigadoon!
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It’s not been a great week for fans of music-themed entertainment: two big-name shows have been cancelled by two of thebest streaming services. Max has taken away the turntables fromRap Sh!t, whileAppleTV Plus has dropped the curtain onSchmigadoon!.
In both cases it’s not because they’re bad shows, far from it.Rap Sh!thas a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes for both of its seasons, whileSchmigadoon!has a near-perfect 97% – up from a still-good 89% for the first season. And while of course there’s more to shows than their Rotten Tomatoes ratings, when they do score so highly from critics rather than fans – whose reviews can be inflated by review-bombing both positive and negative – it’s usually a sign of something worth watching.
Unfortunately in streaming, quantity matters more than quality – and it looks like both shows sounded a bum note as far as viewing numbers were concerned forMaxandApple TV Plus.
How did the shows' creators take the news?
Posting on Twitter/X,Schmigadoon!co-creator Cinco Paul said that the next season and 25 new songs had already been written, but “such is life… It’s a miracle we even got two seasons, honestly, and I’m so grateful we did.” While “this was tough news to get, the optimist in me is convinced it’s not the end ofSchmigadoon… and maybe it’s even a happy beginning.”
pic.twitter.com/RDc5RPONZcJanuary 18, 2024
Over on Instagram, showrunner Syreeta Singleton said that the writing team were “a real ass group of people”, and “the best writers room ever”. As theHollywood Reporternotes, many cast members also turned to social media to express their disappointment as well as their love for the show: Robin Thede’s Instagram story spoke for many when she said she was “devastated at this loss but I know your stars will continue to burn brightly”.
These aren’t the first highly rated shows to be cancelled this year – for example,Max cancelledOur Flag Means Deathjust last week, a decision more than 50,000 fans have asked them to reconsider – and they won’t be the last, unfortunately. In the current financial climate, streaming shows that make it to the end of their second season must feel a bit like Star Trek crew members being asked to don a red sweater before being transported to a hostile planet.
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir,Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock bandUnquiet Mind.
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