Major NBC Show Rumored Canceled According to Report
NBC took steps to revive Who Do You Think You Are? over the summer, airing the first episodes since 2018 in July and August. Fans of the show hoping it would return next year will now possibly face some bad news. The peacock network is not working on another season, Deadline reported on Monday. This would be the second time for the series, which made its way TLC after. Will it do it again?
The show, which was executive produced by Friends star Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky, was "parked," which means NBC has no immediate plans to air another season. A final decision on the show's future could come next year. The most recent episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? featured actors Billy Porter, Nick Offerman, Allison Janney, Zachary Levi, Bradley Whitford, and Zachary Quinto traveling around the world to discover their family lineage.
NBC's treatment of Who Do You Think You Are? is part of a growing trend among the networks. Since unscripted reality shows are not tied to cast contract options, the networks feel no rush to "park" these shows and decide on their future later. NBC also "parked" Amy Poehler's Making It, Kristen Bell's Family Game Night!, and America's Got Talent: Extreme. ABC also parked Supermarket Sweep and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and Fox did the same for The Masked Dancer, Game of Talents, Mental Samurai, and Alter Ego. Their status means they could be brought back at any time. Fox recently did this with So You Think You Can Dance, which was off the air for three years before it suddenly came back for Season 17 in the spring.
Who Do You Think You Are? is based on a BBC series that debuted in 2004. The U.S. version first aired on NBC from 2010 to 2012. TLC revived the show in 2013 and continued airing it was canceled again in 2018. NBC revived the show again in 2019, but the revival did not debut until July 10. The show is produced by Shed Media, which is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, and Is Or Isn't It Entertainment.
Although Deadline is reporting that AGT: Extreme is among the shows "parked," AGT creator Simon Cowell is under the impression the show is completely dead. In a recently unearthed interview with The Buzz in September, Cowell said there was "no chance" he would do another Extreme season. "That was, for me, the most nerve-wracking thing, I have ever done in my life," Cowell said. "I mean, I'm not kidding. I felt like a contestant. It was something we wanted to do, but I would never go through that again."