The gay Netflix series Uncoupled, starring Neil Patrick Harris, has been canceled after a single season thanks to low viewer interest.
Uncoupled focuses on Harris as Michael Lawson, a gay man in his mid 40s whose relationship with the man he thought was his life partner ends after 17 years. The series then follows Harris’ character as he tries to get back in the dating pool, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“Overnight, he has to confront two nightmares,” reads the show’s summary. “Losing the man he thought was his soulmate, and suddenly finding himself a single gay man in his mid-forties in New York City.”
The series — created by Darren Star (Sex and the City) and Jeremy Richman (Modern Family) — only debuted in July, but its initial eight episodes will comprise the entirety of the series.
The cast also included Tuc Watkins, Tisha Campbell, Brooks Ashmanskas, Emerson Brooks, and Marcia Gay Harden.
The series was well reviewed and gained a 73 percent critical approval on Rotten Tomatoes and a 75 percent audience score. But it failed to earn many actual viewers and appeared only once — for its debut episode — in the Netflix top ten, Variety noted.
Producers are hopeful that the series will be picked up by another streamer or network; there has been some talk of MTV Entertainment Studios picking the series up, according to Collider.
The series kicked up a bit of controversy before it even debuted, when actress Ada Maris complained that her housekeeper character was written with such stereotypical lines and blasted the writers and producers of racial bias for the “hurtful and derogatory” character.
Her character was quickly eliminated from the series.
Recent gay-themed series and movies have not done as well as Hollywood hoped. Producer, writer and actor Billy Eichner’s widely praised gay rom-com Bros, for instance, was a stunning box office failure last October. And in June, Disney’s Lightyear prominently featuring a lesbian kissing scene, also crashed and burned. Disney also lost its shirt with its fall comedy animated film, Strange World, which also touted gay characters over any compelling story.
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