GLOW Canceled at Netflix Despite Earlier Season 4 Renewal

Not too long ago, “Netflix will greenlight anything” was a strong enough meme that it was featured as a joke on actual Netflix shows like Lady Dynamite and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Now that meme is in danger of becoming “Netflix will cancel anything.”

The streaming giant today announced that it has canceled its two remaining Jenji Kohan-produced shows: GLOW and Teenage Bounty Hunters, according to Deadline. The latter’s cancellation comes after just one season and the former’s cancellation arrives despite the show previously being confirmed for a fourth and final season. 

In the case of GLOW, the cancellation comes due to the coronavirus-related shutdowns and the difficulty of producing a highly physical show based on professional wrestling. 

“We’ve made the difficult decision not to do a fourth season of GLOW due to COVID, which makes shooting this physically intimate show with its large ensemble cast especially challenging,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline. “We are so grateful to creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, Jenji Kohan and all the writers, cast and crew for sharing this story about the incredible women of GLOW with us and the world.”

GLOW season 4 began production in February of this year before shutting down due to the coronavirus crisis. At the time, the show had wrapped filming on one episode and had started on an episode. 

GLOW followed the fictionalized creation story of a real all-women professional wrestling enterprise called the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW). The show’s large ensemble cast was led by Allison Brie as Ruth “Zoya the Destroya” Wilder, Betty Gilpin as Debbie “Liberty Belle” Eagan, and Marc Maron as director Sam Sylvia. The rest of the show’s cast included Sydelle Noel, Brittany Young, Britt Baron, Kate Nash, Gayle Rankin, Kia Stevens, Jackie Tohn, and Chris Lowell.

The size of the cast proved to be an asset in telling diverse stories about a diverse group of women but unfortunately may have ended up contributing to the show’s early demise as it was too difficult for the show to continue its L.A.-based production. 

GLOW joins The Society and I Am Not Okay With This as Netflix shows unable to continue due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The cancellation of Teenage Bounty Hunters does not appear to be COVID-related. Season 1 of the show reportedly performed well in the week after its Aug. 14 release, making this a somewhat curious decision. The show followed two high school-aged fraternal twins Sterling (Maddie Phillips) and Blair (Anjelica Bette Fellini) as they team with bounty hunter Bowser Jenkins (Kadeem Hardison) to start bringing in local criminals.

Both GLOW and Teenage Bounty Hunters were produced by prominent TV creator Jenji Kohan. Kohan was the person behind one of Netflix’s first big original hits in Orange is the New Black.