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A League Of Their Own Showrunner Calls Out Wave Of LGBTQ+ TV Cancelations
"We are not a niche anymore," Will Graham said at the GLAAD Awards.
As LGBTQ+ media was honored last week during the GLAAD Awards, A League of Their Own showrunner Will Graham used the opportunity to call out the wave of cancelations that hit queer shows this past year, and the executives who refuse to fight for them.
The Prime Video show, which premiered last summer, won the award for outstanding new TV series — a bittersweet win, for several reasons.
“It would be strange to accept this award without commenting on the fact that this show is one of the lucky ones, and that so many of the shows that were nominated in this category have been canceled or quietly canceled, and that mirrors what’s happening with queer stories across our society and in our classrooms,” Graham, who developed and runs the show alongside star Abbi Jacobson, told the audience.
Although he called ALOTO “lucky,” the critically acclaimed show was only renewed for an additional four final episodes, bringing the total up to a whopping 12 episodes for the entire series.
Still, Graham was correct in noting it fared better than some of the other nominees — the Queer as Folk reboot has already been canceled, Willow’s fate looks dismal, and several others have yet to be announced either way. And that’s to say nothing of the numerous other shows centering LGBTQ+ stories and characters caught up in the cancelation wave this past year — Warrior Nun, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Doom Patrol, Titans, The L Word: Generation Q, 1899, Fate: The Winx Saga, First Kill, Gentleman Jack, Gossip Girl, Love, Victor, Legacies, Q-Force, Vampire Academy, Work in Progress, The Wilds — the list goes on and on.
There’s a larger issue at hand of streamers failing at marketing and building hype for their series, and subsequently declining to give them the space to find an audience, but the sheer percentage of LGBTQ+ shows caught up in this ongoing problem speaks volumes as to where executives’ priorities lie. And it’s a shame, both due to the sweeping legislation trying to silence LGBTQ+ people in the United States Graham alluded to and because there is very clearly a perpetually expanding audience for these stories.
“I hope that all of us on this stage and all of us in this room can say to our industry that we are the audience that is growing. We are not a niche anymore, there’s way too many of us,” he said. “The days that you can hold a Pride event and cancel our shows at the same time has to be over. The days when you can sit on the sidelines while people debate our right to exist are over.
“We are here, our lives matter, our joy matters, and we will remember who stood with us and who stood back at this crucial moment in our history.”
A League of Their Own is based on the film of the same title, and both are based on real events with largely fictionalized characters.
A League of Their Own will return with four episodes for a second and final season.
A League of Their Own the TV series is streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and the 1992 film is available on Netflix.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
