Class at Essex College has officially been dismissed, with HBO‘s streamer Max today canceling their hit series The Sex Lives of College Girls following the recent January finale of the third season. However, the comedy series created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble isn’t quite finished for good, with Warner Bros. Television reported to be considering other avenues to keep school in session and this popular series alive. Netflix, which has a strong history with Kaling, is said to be a potential platform the show could find an eventual home on, although this is still only a rumor with a WBD representative refusing to comment at this stage.
The cancellation of The Sex Lives of College Girls is reportedly due to a drop in viewership figures for the recent third season, with Season 3, Episode 2’s wrap for Reneé Rapp, perhaps a pivotal cause for the decline in numbers. Rapp was a mainstay in the first two seasons of the show and perhaps its biggest star, with her progression onto bigger projects leaving a big hole in the Sex Lives of College Girls ensemble that sadly couldn’t be filled. In an interview with Vanity Fair, showrunner Noble discussed Rapp‘s exit, saying in reference to a particularly sad moment in production, “The scene that obviously jumps to my mind is the goodbye where they’re outside underneath the little archway in episode two. That scene was incredibly impactful and moving to film for the cast, because it was real. It really was a goodbye.”
‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Season 3 Finale Was the Perfect End
Although the news of the show’s cancelation will likely come as a shock to many, it perhaps wasn’t to those behind the scenes, certainly not if comments made by Noble to TV Line are considered. Noble and Kaling avoided major cliffhangers and gave satisfying endings to each of Bela (Amrit Kaur), Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), and Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), which felt earned, especially following a particularly turbulent season for the trio. Although this wasn’t with an exact cancelation in mind, it did feel right, according to Noble, to end on a high note and without a cliffhanger for the first time in the show’s history. Noble said:
“I was just kind of choosing joy and celebration of these girls, who have been through a lot this season, which felt like the right creative ending for them. I got excited about this kind of symphony of wins that all of these girls could have together, and then it felt antithetical to that to tack on a cliffhanger for logistic TV-writing purposes.”
The Sex Lives of College Girls has been canceled by Max.
via Collider