ABC president Channing Dungey announced Tuesday at the network's Upfront presentation that the comedy will feature original music from exec producer and Tony winner Daveed Diggs, who is fresh off his breakout turn in Hamilton.
Courtesy of ABCABC will not re-elect The Mayor.
Despite an order for three backup scripts, the Disney-owned broadcaster has opted to cancel the rookie political comedy. Four unaired episodes of the series remain and the comedy has been pulled off the air ahead of its January return, with ABC slotting Modern Family repeats for the time being. Producers ABC Studios will shop the comedy, about an idealistic rapper (Brandon Micheal Hall) who runs for mayor and wins, elsewhere. Hulu, a joint venture with Disney, has stacking rights to the series.
Executive produced by Hamilton‘s Daveed Diggs, The Mayor was paired with Black-ish on ABC’s Tuesday comedy lineup. Despite the strong lead-in, The Mayor — from showrunner Jeremy Bronson (Speechless) — opened to a 1.2 rating in the all-important adults 18-49 demographic. The overall live viewership has continued to slide, with its Nov. 14 installment registering a paltry 2.45 million total viewers as it airs opposite NBC’s This Is Us. Delayed viewing on the single-camera comedy co-starring Lea Michele (Glee) remains soft. The series has aired seven of its 13 episodes and will wrap production.
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Bronson recently scored a series order at Netflix for a family comedy starring Rev. Run (of Run DMC fame) that is being produced by ABC Studios and Amblin.
The Mayor was ABC’s lone comedy to launch in the fall. The network’s half-hour bench includes its Roseanne revival, family comedy Splitting Up and Zach Braff vehicle Alex, Inc. On the drama side, ABC has yet to schedule The Crossing, Deception, Shondaland’s For the People and the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff as the network has little real estate remaining.
The Mayor is ABC’s second cancellation of the season; straight-to-series drama Ten Days in the Valley was pulled from the schedule, with the Sunday drama being buried and burned off on Saturdays in December.
