‘Party of Five’ Reboot Canceled at Freeform After First Season

Freeform’s Party of Five reboot has been canceled after just one season, reported Deadline Friday. This decision not to proceed with a sophomore season of the family drama comes more than a month after the 90-minute season finale aired on March 4, which concluded a much-anticipated season that had middling ratings.

The Freeform reboot updated the 1990s series, which won a Golden Globe for best TV drama in 1996, into an immigration-themed drama focusing on the lives of the five Acosta children after their parents are deported to Mexico. Original series creators Chris Keyser and Amy Lippman led the reboot, which was produced by Sony TV. The series reportedly averaged 252,000 total viewers in Live+Same Day category during the first season, kicking off with 442,000 viewers for the premiere, but dropping gradually to just 143,000 viewers who watched the finale. A similar trend was seen in the Live+3, ratings, from 652,000 viewers at the premiere to 350,000 to 360,000 in the show’s last final episodes.

Party Of Five starred Brandon Larracuente as Emilio Acosta, Emily Tosta as Lucia Acosta, Niko Guardado as Beto Acosta and Elle Paris Legaspi as Valentina Acosta. Bruno Bichir and Fernanda Urrejola were cast as the Acosta parents, Javier and Gloria. Lippman and Keyser served as executive producers and writers, while Rodrigo Garcia also served as executive producer and directed the pilot and Michal Zebede served as co-executive producer and writer.

Lippman told The New York Times in November 2019 that the current political climate made the new Party of Five especially relevant. “When you read on the front page that kids are having to raise themselves because their parents are taken away from them, well that’s a reason to tell the story again,” she said. “Because it’s actually happening.”

Zebede added that it was important to tell the story from a human perspective as well as a political, adding, “This is an opportunity to really get into the perspective of a group of people in this country that has been marginalized — and on many occasions villainized — and just show they are people, too.”