Strong reviews weren’t enough to save Amazon Prime Video comedy Clean Slate from cancellation.
Lead actress Laverne Cox released a statement on Friday, April 18, confirming the series from producers Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television had ended production after one season.
“Our baby, our beautiful show Clean Slate is not coming back for a second season,” Cox wrote on Instagram. “I just want to thank all of you for your support. The love we’ve received from all of you is just so beautiful… To our cast and crew, everyone at Sony and Amazon, I love you all so much!”
Related: Al Sharpton Has ‘Constructive’ Meeting With Target CEO Over DEI Rollback
Cox (Orange Is the New Black) was the first transgender performer nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category, and has two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a GLAAD Award.
In her statement, she encouraged Emmy voters to cast their ballots for co-star George Wallace this year.
“Now can all the Television Academy members reading this please nominate George Wallace for his first Primetime Emmy,” she wrote.
Clean Slate premiered Feb. 6, according to a press release from Amazon.
The comedy centered on Harry (Wallace), an old-school car wash owner in Alabama who must come to grips with having a transgender child, when his “son” returns home after 17 years as “a proud trans woman” named Desiree (Cox).
Telma Hopkins, D.K. Uzoukwu, Jay Wilkison, and Norah Murphy also had roles on the series. The show has a strong 89 percent score out of 100 on RottenTomatoes.
Cox, Wallace, and Dan Ewen created and executive produced the comedy. The late Norman Lear and Brent Miller also served as executive producers. The series is said to be Lear’s final completed project before he died in December 2023.
News of the cancellation broke earlier in the day in a guest column that Cox, Wallace, and Ewen penned for Deadline. “By the end of March, our eight-episode series, our labor of love, was canceled,” the column said. “A seven-year effort was gone in a puff.”
The cancellation comes as big companies dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs meant to level the playing field for women and minorities.
In February of this year, The Hollywood Reporter published an article saying Amazon Studios was “rolling back” policies it implemented in 2021, following the death of George Floyd to increase racial, ethnic and gender diversity on its series and films.
A growing number of companies have been scaling back DEI efforts since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
On his first day in office, Trump ordered all programs promoting DEI in the federal government be terminated, then he pushed for the private sector to end what he called “illegal” diversity initiatives.
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