LGBTQ activists are reacting with alarm to the growing list of gay-friendly streaming and TV shows that are getting the axe as wokeness seems to be on the downswing in U.S. culture.
The most recent cancellation to spark the ire of activists is the end of the Peacock/Netflix comedy series Girls5Eva.
The LGBTQ infused musical series was initially presented on the Peacock streaming network starting in 2021, but the NBC-affiliated streamer axed the show at the end of its second season. However, Netflix gave the show another shot and picked it up from Peacock awarding the show a third season. But now Netflix has reported that there will not be a fourth season.
Executive produced in part by comedienne Tina Fey, the show follows the older members of a 1990s girl band that had only one hit in their hey day, but who shoot back into the spotlight in their 40s when a rapper sampled their song. The series follows the women as they struggle to reunite and begin performing again even as they have normal, everyday jobs and family lives.
As created by Meredith Scardino, there have been several gay characters in the series and one of the main characters is a lesbian. Actress Paula Pell, who plays Gloria, is a lesbian both in character on the show and in real life. The series had received three Emmy Award nominations, and was named as one of left-wing Slate magazine’s best shows of 2024.
Even before Netflix made the announcement, series co-star Busy Philipps announced on her podcast that the show was ending.
“[Girls5Eva is] dead.I’m just saying it because fuck it. If Netflix won’t, I will,” Philipps said recently. “I guess not enough people watched it or watched it the way that counts. I don’t know. I actually just don’t know.”
Philipps added that there was never much hope for more than one new season on Netflix from the start because their contract deal was only for one season and no hint of a fourth was ever in the cards.
But gay-centric outlets such as Pink News is lamenting the loss of the series, saying that the Tina Fey produced series “joins the depressingly long list of queer shows axed in 2024.”
Radical gay activist group GLAAD is also alarmed at the number of LGBTQ shows being cancelled. In it’s 2024 “Where We Are On TV” report, the group found that the 2024 season already had a significant decrease of gay characters in ongoing series all across TV and streaming series. The group noted that “Of all 468 LGBTQ characters counted, at least 170 (36 percent) will not be returning.” Of that number 24 percent won’t be returning due to their show being cancelled or otherwise coming to an end.
Even Disney has recently begun removing gay content from its shows for kids. The latest incident was reveled this week when the entertainment giant announced that it had removed a transgender subplot in its kids series Win or Lose.
In November, the Mouse House acted in a similar manner by removing a transgender-centered episode from its run of the kids cartoon Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
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