Comedian Bobby Lee theorizes he was one of the 'woke elements' cut from 'Sex and the City' spinoff

Fox News

4 days ago

Stand-up comedian Bobby Lee said over the weekend that he believes he was cut from the "Sex and the City" spin-off to remove wokeness from the series.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly (EW) at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, Lee theorized that he wasn't brought back for the third season of "And Just Like That…" because producers were looking to get rid of the show's more "woke elements."
"Some of the woke elements of the show, they got rid of, and I think I was a part of that. I think Sara [Ramirez] didn't come back and some other people," he said, mentioning his series co-star, who played actress Cynthia Nixon's non-binary love interest in the show.
"They tried to put minorities in, and — I don't know. I never saw the show," he added.
Lee played Jackie Nee, the co-host of Carrie Bradshaw's podcast, for the first two seasons of the HBO Max series. At the end of the second season, Bradshaw – played by Sarah Jessica Parker – left her podcast to focus on writing her novel. Her team of coworkers did not return for the follow-up season.
HBO director of media relations, Erin Tresco, disputed Lee's theory that he was a victim of woke cuts. She told Fox News Digital that the reason Lee left the show was that "Carrie is no longer hosting a podcast, and instead focused on her novel, the storyline of characters involved in the podcast came to a conclusion."
The comedian had only good things to say about Parker and his former cast mates, telling EW, "Sarah Jessica Parker is the nicest person I've ever met. She made me feel so at ease. I like everyone on there. It was fun. I never have bad blood with anybody. You know what I mean? I am nice. I show up on time."
Lee, a former star of MADtv, stand-up comedian, and popular podcaster, told EW he's not quite sure why he got the "And Just Like That…" role in the first place.
"Number one, I don't even know why they asked," he said. "And I was super scared to do it. Because it wasn't my brand, really. You know what I mean? But I did it. I walked through the fear."
Critics pointed out the woke elements of the "Sex and the City" follow-up when it debuted on the HBO streaming platform in 2021.
At the time, The Guardian critic Lucy Mangan wrote that the show's "onslaught of 'woke' teachings lends the show a smugly self-congratulatory rather than ironically self-aware air. This does nothing to make it sing like the original, which – even if it was narrow and elite – knew its world inside out and could allow the comedy and the drama to arise in ways that felt effortless."
The New York Times also skewered the show's woke themes, suggesting they were pandering.
The outlet's TV critic, James Poniewozik, wrote in 2021 that the series' diverse newcomers "don't pass the racial Bechdel test; they exist only in relation to the central trio, serving to challenge or affirm them while reassuring them and us that they're trying hard and mean well."
Representatives for Lee did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital's request for comment.