Pop TV Picks Up One Day at a Time Three Months After Netflix Canceled It

For years, streaming services have been saving series that had been canceled by linear networks, including Arrested Development (which moved from Fox to Netflix), The Mindy Project (Fox to Hulu), Community (NBC to Yahoo Screen) and Designated Survivor (ABC to Netflix). But for the first time, a linear network is picking up a show that had been canceled by a streaming service. One Day at a Time, the critically acclaimed Netflix series that was canceled earlier this year, has found a new life at Pop TV, the CBS Corp. cable network. Pop has ordered a 13-episode fourth season of the series, which will air next year. The series is a Cuban-American reboot of Norman Lear’s 1975 sitcom about a single mom (Justina Machado) raising her two kids with help from her live-in mom (Rita Moreno). As part of the deal, CBS—which aired the original series—will broadcast Season 4 later in 2020, after it airs on Pop. Last month, CBS bought out Lionsgate’s stake in Pop to become the cable network’s sole owner. Pop, best known for its comedy Schitt’s Creek, is looking to making a splash by acquiring the cult series, much in the way that streaming services like Netflix and Hulu grew their early subscriber bases by picking up canceled linear shows. “How amazing it is to be involved with this brilliant and culturally significant series that deals with important themes one minute while making you laugh the next,” said Pop TV president Brad Schwartz in a statement. “If Schitt’s Creek has taught us anything, it’s that love and kindness always wins. Pop is now the home to two of the most critically praised and fan-adored comedies in all of television, bringing even more premium content to basic cable. We couldn’t be more proud to continue telling heartwarming stories of love, inclusion, acceptance and diversity that pull on your emotions while putting a smile on your face.” Sony Pictures Television, which produces the series, has searched for a new home since Netflix canceled One Day at a Time three months ago. One major stumbling block has been that Netflix maintains streaming rights to the series under its original deal, which in essence prevented a rival streamer from swooping in with an offer, given that the first three seasons would remain on Netflix. “We are so honored to be associated with this exceptional series,” said Jeff Frost, Sony Pictures Television president, in a statement. “It means so much to so many people. We were never willing to accept that the story of the Alvarez family might not continue and we undertook every effort to ensure that did not occur." Lear, who is also an executive producer on the reboot, said in a statement, “Three months ago, I was heartbroken with the news of our beloved One Day at a Time’s cancellation. Today, I’m overwhelmed with joy to know the Alvarez family will live on. Thank you to my producing partner, Brent Miller, our incredibly talented co-showrunners, Mike Royce and Gloria Calderón Kellett, and of course, Sony, for never once giving up on the show, our actors or the possibility that a cable network could finally save a cancelled series that originated on a streaming service. And one last thank you to Pop, for having the guts to be that first cable network. Even this I get to experience–at 96.”