BET Scraps Plans for ‘The Breaks’ Season 2 (Exclusive)

BET has scrapped plans for a second season of The Breaks.

The Viacom-owned cable network announced in April that the hip-hop drama would move from BET to VH1 for a second season. That will no longer happen, and the series has been canceled after its lone season on VH1.

The Breaks started as a back-door pilot on fellow Viacom cabler VH1. It was based on Dan Charnas‘ best-seller The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop. The book is considered one of the most comprehensive accounts of the history and business of hip-hop. Charnas documented the rise of the genre as a writer for The Source, the first rap magazine, and is a former record executive. His book spans 40 years of stories and was culled from more than 300 interviews with execs, entrepreneurs, hustlers and handlers.

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VH1 Orders Hip-Hop Drama 'The Breaks' to Series (Exclusive)

The Breaks wrapped its eight-episode run in February, averaging about a million viewers per episode. Afton Williamson, Tristan Wilds, Melonie Diaz, Evan Handler and Gloria Reuben starred.

In April, BET announced that it had picked up The Breaks for a second season and cheerleading drama Hit the Floor for a fourth season, with the latter coming more than a year after its third season wrapped on VH1.

But with BET’s recent pickups, the cabler no longer had a need for The Breaks. BET, which ranks as one of the six core brands that corporate parent Viacom is focusing on during its bid to revive the media giant, recently went straight to series with In Contempt, a procedural starring Erica Ash; The Quad; The Comedy Get Down; and Hit the Floor. Meanwhile, Being Mary Jane — its flagship scripted drama — will wrap its run with a two-hour series finale in 2018.

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