‘Whiskey Cavalier’: What Led to ABC’s Brief Reconsideration for the Canceled Show

Whiskey Cavalier‘s cancellation was almost overturned! ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke opened up about the difficult decision to cancel the beloved freshman drama series starring Scott Foley and Lauren Cohan, revealing an email from executive producer Bill Lawrence almost got her to reconsider.

Fans of the series will remember that days after announcing the initial cancellation, ABC decided to take another look at the show and consider renewing it after fan outcry. After a week of negotiations with the Warner Bros., the studio that produced the show, the network decided to leave the show in the cancellation graveyard.

“Whiskey Cavalier has been fully and finally cancelled,” showrunner David Hemingson announced on Twitter in late May.

Burke confirmed to TVLine in an interview posted this week that she receive a “passionate email” from Lawrence after the show was canceled, which inspired her to take another look.

“He was just so deeply passionate about it,” Burke told the outlet. “He put his heart and soul into it. And he just asked us to take one last look. And we really did.

“It was tough [to justify] financially [and] ratings-wise,” Burke added of the show ending. “We ultimately just decided to bet on the future.”

After Burke’s reconsideration, Hemingson announced the sad news on social media.

“Friends: I just got the sad news that [ABCNetwork] has passed,” he wrote on Twitter. “[Whiskey Cavalier] has been fully and finally cancelled. Thank you all so, so much for your efforts on our behalf. I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the outpouring of support.”

“It’s incredibly painful to say goodbye to this show and our extraordinary cast, but knowing that we made something you enjoyed – and that I believe will stand the test of time — makes it all worthwhile,” he added in a second tweet, also including a photo of Foley and Cohan.

Aside from hoping ABC would reconsider, the studio also reportedly put out feelers to streaming platforms to potentially rescue the show from cancellation, but those attempts did not pan out.

Burke had previously told reporters the decision to cancel the show was “tough.”

“We felt like we gave it a very strong launch this spring and it had its chance to do what it could do… We looked for other time slots [for Whiskey Cavalier] but did not see a real opportunity to grow,” she said ahead of the network’s Upfront presentation in May.