Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist has spent two seasons delivering the kind of musical dramedy that can't be found anywhere else on the small screen, but the show's songs are going to stop on NBC. Nearly a month after the Season 2 finale in mid-May, the network has officially cancelled the show. That said, fans don't have to burst out into sad song just yet. There's hope.
Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist has been cancelled at NBC, which isn't altogether shocking after how much time had passed without word of the show's future. In further bad news, negotiations to bring Zoey to NBCU's streaming service Peacock for a third season running for eight episodes reportedly fell through over the weekend.
The hopeful news is that TVLine reports Peacock was not the only hope for a streaming future for Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. Production studio Lionsgate is shopping Zoey around to other streamers, and there is evidently already some interest in rescuing Zoey for another season. A spokesperson for Lionsgate commented on a possible future for Zoey, saying to Variety:
In a world where finding loyal and passionate audiences is never easy, we believe there must be a home for this great, award-winning show with a passionate and dedicated following.
There are no details at the time of writing about which streaming services have shown interest in saving Zoey, but the usual suspects are Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Netflix has certainly had success in renewing niche shows that didn't have a future elsewhere, as proven by Lucifer (which just released new episodes) and certainly Cobra Kai, so Netflix could be an ideal home for the musical show. Alternately, Hulu is currently a streaming home for Zoey Season 2. Still, it's hard to rule out any streamer other than Peacock at this point.
Zoey's Extraordinary's Playlist historically hasn't been the biggest winner in the ratings, to the point that fans had reason to be nervous about the show getting a second season at all last spring. Season 2 got off to a strong enough start by Zoey standards, but both ratings and viewership experienced a significant drop halfway through, which is likely due to Zoey going on an abrupt hiatus in the middle of the season, and then returning in a different time slot with freshman comedies taking over its Tuesday hour on NBC.
According to TV Series Finale in Live+Same day ratings calculations, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist's final episode numbers before heading into a hiatus that started in early February were a 0.43 rating and audience of 2.2 million, in the 18-49 age demographic. To contrast, the late March return scored only a 0.24 rating and 1.2 million viewers, and the ratings and viewership never recovered to the pre-hiatus, pre-time-slot-switch numbers.
The good news is that traditional ratings don't apply to streaming series, even if streamers aren't so open about their numbers compared to broadcast networks. There is definitely hope for a future for Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, even if its shot at continuing on NBC and then Peacock resulted in a cancellation.
For now, you can still watch and rewatch the existing episodes, with the full series streaming on Peacock and the second season streaming on Hulu. If you're in the market for some new shows to soothe the sting of Zoey's cancellation, swing by our 2021 summer TV premiere schedule for some ideas!
