NBC Cancels Comedies ‘Indebted’ and ‘Sunnyside’ After Their First Seasons

After just a single season, both Indebted and Sunnyside have been canceled at NBC. The cancellations came late Monday as the network squared up the remainder of its scripted lineup, with Bluff City Law also making the chopping block while Manifest received a third season renewal.

Created by Kal Penn and Matt Murray, the single-camera comedy Sunnyside centered on Penn’s Garrett Modi, a former New York councilman who finds his calling when he starts helping immigrants find their path toward citizenship and the American dream. The series also starred Joel Kim Booster, Diana-Maria Riva, Kiran Deol, Poppy Liu, Moses Storm and Samba Schutte. The series premiered in September to 1.77 million total viewers and a 0.4 demo rating, numbers that slipped over the following weeks, earning it unlucky distinction as the lowest-rated first-year show of the 2019-20 season, according to TVLine.

After airing just a handful of episodes, NBC pulled the series from its schedule, with the final episodes airing on Hulu and NBC’s digital platforms. At the time, many believed this to be a sign that the series was likely to get the ax, with Penn even taking to Twitter to promote the series to other networks and streamers.

“Dear Hollywood — I have 10 funny, heartwarming patriotic episodes of the most diverse show on television for ya,” he wrote at the time. “Any takers, call me! We have INSANELY talented writers & cast and are interested in selling this to an established streamer that wants a fun, relevant comedy!”

Indebted, meanwhile, followed millennial parents Dave and Rebecca as they worked to work to reclaim their life after years of diapers and sleepless nights. Their lives, however, are turned upside down when Dave’s parents show up unannounced and broke. The series starred Fran Drescher, Adam Pally, Steven Weber, Jessy Hodges, and Abby Elliott, who opened up to PopCulture.com about how the embraces a relatability between two generations.

“I think whether you are the baby boomer or the millennial, you can totally relate to both not really fully understanding the other generation and having those moments of really appreciating the other generation and needing them,” Elliott said. “So it’s not just them relying on us, it’s them teaching us as well.”

Debuting on the network in February, the 12-episode first season ranked next-to-last in both demo rating, averaging just a 0.35 demo rating, and total viewers, averaging just 1.6 million, TVLine reports. Only Sunnyside fell behind it.