Canceled NBC Series Close to Returning on Roku for Farewell Movie

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist might get one more chapter after all thanks to an unexpected venue. Lionsgate Television, the lead studio behind the unique series, is reportedly close to a deal with Roku to develop a holiday movie for its own streaming channel. NBC canceled the show after two seasons in June, and attempts to move the show to NBCUniversal's Peacock were unsuccessful.

The Roku movie would bring back the entire lead cast, including Jane Levy, who plays Zoey Clarke, reports Deadline. The deal is still being finalized, but if the movie is successful, Roku might consider ordering another season of the series, sources told the outlet. Lionsgate's efforts to keep the show alive were "extensive," but nothing came as close to fruition as this unique Roku plan.

While Lionsgate's search was on, the cast's contract options expired at the end of June. This was thought to be the final nail in the coffin for the show. However, after Lionsgate started talks with Roku, the studio reached out to the main cast and is now close to finalizing deals with them for a holiday-themed movie.

While Roku is best known for its streaming hardware, the company has started making strides to beef up the content on its own Roku streaming channel. Its biggest content acquisition so far is the Quibi library, bringing all the content created for Jeffrey Katzenberg's failed mobile short-form streaming experiment to the Roku channel. The company recently reported it has 55.1 million active accounts, jumping 1.5 million from the first quarter of 2021.

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist was created by Austin Winsberg. It centers on Zoey Clarke, a San Francisco-based software engineer who can understand people's feelings through "heartsongs" only she can hear. Skylar Astin, Alex Newell, John Clarence Stewart, Mary Steenburgen, Andrew Leeds, Alice Lee, Michael Thomas Grant, and Kapil Talwalkar round out the main cast. The show's second season ended with a surprising cliffhanger, which made its cancellation in June even more heartbreaking.

Although the show never earned huge ratings, it built a dedicated fan base. In 2020, choreographer Mandy Moore won the Emmy for Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming. Moore earned two nominations in the same category for Season 2, sharing one nomination with Luther Brown. The show was also nominated for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the song "Crimson Love" and Outstanding Music Direction. Bernadette Peters earned an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series nomination. Both seasons of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist are available to stream on Peacock.