It’s a sad day for fans of The Wonder Years. Deadline exclusively reports that ABC has opted to not renew the reboot for a third season. The series aired its second season, now series, finale on Aug. 16. While the news is definitely sad, it’s not so surprising. Season 2 was initially set to air during midseason on the network. It was then pushed to summer, premiering over a year after the Season 1 finale. Not only that but Season 2 only had just 10 episodes as opposed to the first season’s full 22 order.
Just behind ABC’s unscripted lineup, The Wonder Years ranked as the lowest-rated and least-watched series on the network this summer. It also was one of the lowest-rated ABC series during the 202-23 broadcast season. The Wonder Years starred Elisha “EJ” Williams, Dulé Hill, Saycon Sengbloh, Laura Kariuki, Amari O’Neil, Julian Lerner, and Milan Ray. Inspired by the beloved 1988 series, the 1960s-set reboot takes a look at the Williams family, Black middle-class residents of Montgomery, Alabama through the eyes of 12-year-old Dean. Don Cheadle serves as narrator and the adult version of Dean.
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The Wonder Years in 2021 and received generally positive reviews. Viewers did dip from Season 1 to Season 2, however. Average viewers for the first season were just above 2 million, while Season 2 couldn’t even hit 2 million aside from the premiere. There is always hope that the series will be picked up elsewhere, but that could be hard right now with the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. So, for now, it seems that the Williams family won’t be coming back, even after an eventful summer.
Meanwhile, even though ABC has made a decision on The Wonder Years, the network is still holding out for The Rookie: Feds and Home Economics, as well as pilot . The latter is the last remaining pilot still in contention, as the others got axed, aside from Kaitlin Olson’s . It’s unknown when decisions on the three series will be made, but it’s possible that news won’t be released until after the strikes. Since The Wonder Years was already announced, it’s also possible that fans could be expecting news sooner rather than later.
The Wonder Years may be over once again, but both seasons are streaming on Hulu, so it will be like the Williams family never left. The original series is also streaming on Hulu, so fans can get double The Wonder Years if they want.
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