Baby Daddy Season 4 Cast - H 2015
Courtesy of ABCFreeform’s longest-running comedy is coming to an end.
Baby Daddy‘s current sixth season will be its last, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Sources say the Disney-owned cable network had unofficially picked up the Dan Berendsen-created multicamera comedy for additional episodes to extend its sixth season but reversed course when ABC’s Black-ish spinoff became a possibility and instead used the funds earmarked for Baby Daddy instead. The college-set Black-ish spinoff starring Yara Shahidi is all but a done deal for a series pickup at Freeform.
The landmark 100th episode of Baby Daddy, airing May 22, will now serve as a series finale. Berendsen penned the episode knowing that the show was firmly on the bubble, and it will provide closure for viewers.
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Starring Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Derek Theler, Tahj Mowry, Melissa Peterman and Chelsea Kane, Baby Daddy is a family comedy about a guy raising a baby left on his doorstep after a one-night stand. The series is the longest-running half-hour on Freeform (the former ABC Family) and pre-dated current network president Tom Ascheim.
With flagship drama Pretty Little Liars wrapping its run this year after seven seasons and Baby Daddy’s cancelation, the network has only two shows left that were picked up before Ascheim’s arrival — comedy Young and Hungry and drama The Fosters (both returning for their respective fifth seasons this year). Young and Hungry is now the network’s lone multicam.
Under Ascheim, Freeform has pivoted its focus on what the exec calls “becomers,” as in viewers who are experiencing a series of firsts (like love and jobs) as the network shifts its focus from parents with kids to more desirable millennials and teens.
To that end, Freeform is doubling down on important brand extensions with its upcoming slate, including Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger and New Warriors as well as the Black-ish spinoff. Also recently picked up are comedy Alone Together and dramas The Bold Type and The Siren, which join returning series Shadowhunters and Beyond as freshman Famous in Love — from Pretty Little Liars creator Marlene King — awaits a (likely) renewal.
