Back in January, Comedy Central's darling program Inside Amy Schumer was renewed for Season 5 on the cabler. At the time, Season 4 hadn't even aired yet, and life seemed pretty simple for the cable series. However, over the past couple of weeks, things have gotten a whole lot more complex for Inside Amy Schumer. After a writer on her series, Kurt Metzger, went on a wild social media rant, people started looking to Amy Schumer for a response. Not only did she say Kurt Metzger is not a writer on the show, she also explained why. In fact, according to a social media post, she says Inside Amy Schumer is no longer being made:
I didn't fire Kurt. He isn't a writer for my show because we aren't making the show anymore. There are no writers for it.
Amy Schumer has clearly proven that she has skill sets outside of her Comedy Central work and has gone on a big comedy tour recently, not to mention popped up on the big screen thanks to flicks like Trainwreck. She's a busy lady and it wouldn't shock us if she would want to leave the little comedy network that could in order to explore the big, bad world out there. However, I'm pretty confused about what she meant by that first Tweet, because she followed up with a flurry of messages attempting to clarify the point:
Inside Amy Schumer is not cancelled. Comedy Central has provided us with a wonderful home and we couldn't be happier there. I am just touring... Doing Standup and focusing on writing more for the next year at least. We are slated for a season 5 but not in the foreseeable future.
So, basically, it looks like Inside Amy Schumer has been... delayed? Put on hold might be the better phrase. This isn't totally without precedent. Louie also took some time off between Season 3 and 4 in order to give Louis C.K. a little time to focus on the other stuff going on with his career. However, that doesn't really explain that first tweet, where Schumer tried to say Kurt wasn't fired simply because the show wasn't being made any more. If it will eventually go back into production, one would think the show would have to somehow communicate with the writer. (Former writer?) The whole thing is just bizarre.
Basically, it looks as if Amy Schumer was sucked into an argument related to a post Kurt Metzger created on Facebook about a sex abuse scandal. While she obviously didn't agree with Kurt Metzger's actions, she clearly didn't want his words to really be associated with Inside Amy Schumer, which was kind-of hard, considering he wrote during the most recent season of the series. That led to the weird quote on social media, which led fans to assume she meant the show was ending, which then forced Schumer to clarify the point. The whole thing is exhausting really, but it does speak to the importance of being clear and concise when only using 140 characters.
Still, no new Inside Amy Schumer for at least a year means that Comedy Central is down yet another anchor TV series. This week, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore was also cancelled, meaning there will be a couple of slots open for Comedy Central as we head into 2017. We'll have to wait and see if the network can rise to the occasion. You can see what is coming together this fall with our TV premiere schedule.
