‘Sunnyside’ Effectively Canceled by NBC, Remaining Episodes Moving to Digital Platforms

TV season has claimed its first new show, and made room for the beginning of the end of another one! NBC announced Tuesday it has pulled new comedy show Sunnyside to its digital platform. The show will be replaced in its Thursdays at 9:30 p.m ET timeslot with the early premiere of the final season of Will & Grace, which was originally scheduled for early 2020.

The announcement comes with the news the network ordered one additional episode of the new comedy series, increasing its order from 10 to 11 episodes. The remaining episodes will air weekly on the NBC App, NBC.com and other digital platforms.

Variety reported the show is currently filming its ninth episode and will finish production of all 11 episodes. It’s unclear if the move to digital is a precursor to the show moving to NBCUniversal’s upcoming streaming service, Peacock.

Will & Grace will take over the timeslot with its 11th and final season premiere on Thursday, Oct. 24.

Sunnyside stars Kat Penn as a disgraced former New York City councilman in Queens who is hired by a group of immigrants to help them in their quest to citizenship. The series is executive produced by Michael Schur, who also produced series like Parks and Recreation, The Office and The Good Place.

USA Today, who first broke the story, reported the comedy averaged 2.7 million viewers seven days after its Sept. 26, making it the least-watched new show in TV premiere week. It lost a third of its audience. The network told the publication digital viewership among young adults more than doubled the TV audience, though it was not enough to keep it on TV.

Actor Joel Kim Booster took to Twitter to respond to the series being pulled from the TV schedule, writing: “To find out our show is getting pulled and replaced with an all-white cast ON Columbus Day? You can’t write this stuff folks. Out time slot literally got colonized!!”

He later responded with another tweet clarifying the show’s new home in the digital platforms.

Sunnyside will air one more episode Thursday at 9:30 p.m. ET. The timeslot will then be given to the final season of Will & Grace starting Oct. 24.