‘Étoile' vs. ‘The Residence': How to cancel a show without derailing its Emmy chances
When Prime Video officially pulled the plug on Étoile on June 6, the announcement sent ripples through the entertainment industry. While the cancellation of a freshman series is hardly uncommon, it was the timing of the news, not the decision itself, that may have ended the show's Emmy aspirations.
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Just one week before Emmy voting began, Étoile was poised for awards consideration. The ballet dramedy marked the return of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Gilmore Girls). The Palladinos are no strangers to Emmy gold, with 10 wins and 24 nominations between them. While Étoile hadn't toped the streamers charts, it was quietly building momentum and Amazon originally committed to two seasons. FYC events were scheduled, and cast appearances had been lined up. The campaign machine appeared to be just getting into full swing.
Then came the surprising announcement, right in the middle of FYC season, and any momentum the show had seemed to have accumulated came to a halt.
In fact, cast members including Yanic Truesdale, Taïs Vinolo, and Ivan du Pontavice were en route to the SCAD Lacoste Film Festival in France when the news broke, and the team had to shift gears. Truesdale, who played Michel in Gilmore Girls, admitted he was disappointed by the cancellation, telling Deadline, 'I was very excited to see the second season because knowing Amy and Dan's writing, they set things in the first season, and then the second season, once everything is established, is really, when they start to fly with the material,' he said.
Though Amazon continued to support the series with billboards and trade ads, the narrative shift was hard to ignore. A cancellation, particularly one announced before nominations are even secured, sends an unintentional message: this show is done.
In an increasingly crowded awards landscape, perception is everything. Had Étoile been allowed to complete its Emmy campaign with even the illusion of future seasons, it might have captured more than two nominations it received in choreography and cinematography — perhaps in production design, costumes, or direction.
Compare that to Netflix's The Residence. Also shuttered after a single season, The Residence managed to sidestep the same buzzkill with the streamer strategically timing its announcement. Netflix waited until July 2, after Emmy voting had closed.
That crucial difference allowed the show to sustain its campaign energy and gave its cast and crew plausible hope. The result? The show landed four nods, including a surprise Best Comedy Actress nomination for Uzo Aduba — an outcome that may have played out very differently if the cancellation news had dropped a few weeks earlier.
A similar situation unfolded in 2021 with Lovecraft Country, which received 18 Emmy nominations for its first season. HBO announced the show's cancellation in July — after voting had ended. Despite the end of the road, the delay in announcing it preserved the show's award-season momentum.
This contrast highlights just how sensitive Emmy campaigns are to timing.
Now, the industry is watching closely to see how Thursday's shocking news that The Late Show With Stephen Colbert has been canceled just two days after receiving an Emmy nomination will affect voters. Once again, it raises the question at the heart of awards season strategy: When it comes to cancellation, does timing make the difference between an Emmy win and a campaign that fades away?
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USA Today
27 minutes ago
- USA Today
'The Hunting Wives' showrunner talks possible Season 2, Texas, series reception
Spoiler alert: This story includes details from episodes of Season 1 of "The Hunting Wives." When "The Hunting Wives" dropped on Netflix on a quiet Monday, July 21, showrunner Rebecca Cutter was hopeful but held her breath. She knew the series was special with all the right ingredients for a summer binge, including its juicy and intriguing storyline, but at the end of the day, it's always the audiences that call the shots. "I let myself fantasize that maybe it would be (a hit) because I knew it was special when we were making it," Cutter told USA TODAY over Zoom on Thursday, July 31. "I knew it was pretty juicy, the chemistry and performances good, but I never wanted to put the cart before the horse. I never really let myself think about going to number one." But when the show hit number four on Netflix's Top 10 in less than a week, Cutter said she had a feeling it could happen. "It's been just really so exciting," she said. The series, adapted from May Cobb's best-selling 2021 novel of the same name, follows Sophie O'Neil (Brittany Snow), who moves from Boston with her family following a traumatic incident to a small East Texas town. Once there, she finds herself pulled into seductive socialite Margo Banks' (Malin Åkerman) exclusive circle of affluent girlfriends, known as the Hunting Wives. While it's all fun, games and guns initially, things quickly spiral out of control when the body of a young girl, Abby (Madison Wolfe), is found, sending shockwaves throughout the small community, with Sophie, Margo and the Hunting Wives finding themselves entangled in the mystery. "Underneath the Southern charm lies a world of temptation and dangerous liaisons," the series synopsis says. "Margo's magnetic charm and the group's intoxicating allure awaken Sophie's dormant passions, leading her down a treacherous path lined with jealousy, deadly suspicion, and murder." When Cutter was approached by the show's executive producer, Erwin Stoff, who had reached out to her with Cobb's novel, she devoured the book, reading it in "pretty much one sitting on a plane." Cutter, who was in contract with Lionsgate, had previously developed "Hightown," which was also a success. "I loved how juicy it was. I loved how horny it was," Cutter said about Cobb's novel. Book vs. series While the book laid out the groundwork for the series, Cutter decided to carve her own path for the show. She started by taking a trip down to Texas, where she met Cobb and her best friend from high school, and the trio visited a bunch of small towns in the state, soaking in the culture and surroundings. One of the things that struck Cutter was the easy gun culture in the Lone Star State. "I was surprised by how comfortable and how many guns there were," Cutter said. "Even though I knew that was in the book, but being there, I was like, 'Oh, it's just like, everybody has it all the time. And that's considered totally normal.'" Cutter said she "leaned into how fun it was," and practiced a few shots herself with an AR-15 and handgun to "see what the fun is". One of the major differences between the book and the series is the identity of Abby's killer. In the book, Jill (played by Katie Lowe in the series) kills Abby, while in the show, Abby is killed by Margo after the former finds out her boyfriend Brad Thompson (George Ferrier) impregnated Margo, with whom he was having a secret affair. "My favorite, favorite thing in the book was when you think that Margo is sort of framing Sophie for the murder, and when it turned out not to be that in the book, I was like, 'Can I get away with it?'" Cutter said. "It's hard, but can you get away with it being the most obvious person? And so that was the challenge I set out for myself." "Also, she dies in the book, and no fricking way is that character dying," Cutter added about Margo. Despite being set in a small, conservative town, "The Hunting Wives" does not shy away, and the series comes with a whole lot of steamy sex scenes, which Cutter says were intentional and "done in the name of character and plot development." "Nothing is just to show boobs," Cutter said. "Even that first scene in the bathroom (where Margo drops her dress, baring her upper torso) in the first five minutes of the show was a hundred percent character thing." "That is a power move by Margo to say, 'I am so comfortable, I don't even care that you're here,'" Cutter explained. "So, every single scene has a purpose." Will 'The Hunting Wives' return for Season 2? While Cutter did not have a definitive answer for whether the series is expected to return for Season 2, the showrunner said she is "very encouraged by the numbers and by the response." "There has not been an official Season 2 order yet, but I'm feeling very hopeful, and even confident that there will be, just because the fans are demanding it," Cutter said. "I want to give the people what they want." The final episode of "The Hunting Wives" lays a lot of the groundwork for a potential Season 2, and Cutter says she is brimming with ideas for the next season. "Season 1 ends in a place where it could go a lot of different directions, and I have an idea of what I think is the right direction," Cutter said. The showrunner explained, the murder mystery storyline and the personal relationships between the wives, "particularly Sophie and Margo," drive the show, so a potential Season 2 would have to "weave those things together." In the season finale, after Sophie learns it was actually Margo who killed Abby, thanks to a tiny tampon, the two have a major falling out despite Margo's efforts. Sophie then attempts to drown her sorrows in alcohol. 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Initially, it's all positive when it's just the girls hanging out and posing with their guns for Instagram, but when Sophie gets accused of murder, "she has to put on her big girl panties like Margo and get tough, really fast," says Cutter. "She learns all that (survival) from Margo," she adds. "By the end, she has sort of fully realized herself as a killer. They both have." What to know: Will Netflix's 'The Hunting Wives' have a Season 2? How to watch 'The Hunting Wives' All eight episodes of "The Hunting Wives" are available to stream on Netflix. Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@ and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
Los Angeles Times
27 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
South Koreans are obsessed with Netflix's ‘K-pop Demon Hunters.' Here's why
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Fans have also cleaned out the gift shop at the National Museum of Korea, which has run out of a traditional tiger pin that resembles one of the movie's characters. Much of the film's popularity in South Korea is rooted in its keenly observed details and references to Korean folklore, pop culture and even national habits — the result of having a production team filled with K-pop fans, as well as a group research trip to South Korea that co-director Maggie Kang led in order to document details as minute as the appearance of local pavement. There are nods to traditional Korean folk painting, a Korean guide to the afterlife, the progenitors of K-pop and everyday mannerisms. In one scene, at a table in a restaurant where the three girls are eating, viewers might notice how the utensils are laid atop a napkin, an essential ritual for dining out in South Korea — alongside pouring cups of water for everyone at the table. 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The fact that ramyeon is often conflated with Japanese ramen — which inspired the invention of the former decades ago — has long been a point of exasperation for many South Koreans and local ramyeon companies, which point to the fact that the Korean adaption has since evolved into something distinct. It's a small difference — the Korean version is pronounced 'rah myun' — but one that it pays to get right in South Korea. The girls' cravings for ramyeon during their flight also caught the eye of Ireh, a member of the real-life South Korean girl group Purple Kiss who praised the film's portrayals of life as a K-pop artist. 'I don't normally eat ramyeon but whenever I go on tour, I end up eating it,' she said in a recent interview with local media. 'The scene reminded me of myself.' South Korean fans have also been delighted by a pair of animals, Derpy and Sussy, which borrow from jakhodo, a genre of traditional Korean folk painting in which tigers and magpies are depicted side by side, popularized during the Joseon Dynasty in the 19th century. In the film, Derpy is the fluorescent tiger with goggle eyes that always appears with its sidekick, a three-eyed bird named Sussy. Though they have long since been extinct, tigers were once a feared presence on the Korean peninsula, at times coming down from the mountains to terrorize the populace. They were also revered as talismans that warded off evil spirits. But much like Derpy itself, jakhodo reimagined tigers as friendlier, oftentimes comical beings. Historians have interpreted this as the era's political satire: the magpie, audacious in the presence of a great predator, represented the common man standing up to the nobility. The movie is peppered with homages to Korean artists throughout history who are seen today as the progenitors of contemporary K-pop. There are apparent nods to the 'Jeogori Sisters,' a three-piece outfit that was active from 1939 to 1945 and is often described as Korea's first girl group, followed by the Kim Sisters, another three-piece that found success in the U.S., performing in Las Vegas and appearing on 'The Ed Sullivan Show.' Longtime K-pop fans might recognize the demon hunters from the 1990s as S.E.S., a pioneering girl group formed by S.M. Entertainment, the label behind present-day superstars Aespa and Red Velvet. (Bada, S.E.S.'s main vocalist, recently covered 'Golden,' the film's headline track, on YouTube.) For a long time, South Korean audiences have often complained about outside depictions of the country as inauthentic and out of touch. Not anymore. 'Korea wasn't just shown as an extra add-on as it has been for so long,' Kim said. ''K-pop Demon Hunters' did such a great job depicting Korea in a way that made it instantly recognizable to audiences here.'
Fast Company
27 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Hasbro is entering the romantasy universe with a ‘Fourth Wing' board game
Romantasy has already taken over TikTok, bookstores, and Kindles far and wide. Next, it's conquering board games. Hasbro announced that it's struck a 'multi-program' deal with Rebecca Yarros and Entangled Publishing, the author and publisher of the hit romantasy novel Fourth Wing. As the first installment of this collaboration, Hasbro is releasing a board game version of the Fourth Wing universe called Priorities. The game is now available for preorder at Amazon, Target, and Barnes & Noble, and will go on sale at most major retailers starting on October 1. In recent years, the romantasy (romance-slash-fantasy) genre has taken off through online communities like BookTok and Bookstagram, where the discourse around popular series like Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses and Lauren Roberts' Powerless has felt almost unavoidable. Few works have attracted as much attention as Yarros' Fourth Wing (the first book in her Empyrean series), which soundly proved that romantasy is not just a subculture, but a commercially viable treasure trove of IP. 'Fourth Wing' conquers the board game Within a week of its release last January, Onyx Storm —the latest installment of the Empyrean series—had sold 2.7 million copies, and Yarros occupied the first three spots of the New York Times bestseller list. Since then, the series has snagged a show deal with Amazon MGM Studios, and, now, its own dedicated board game. As one of America's largest game and toy companies, Hasbro is picky about the IP it chooses to adapt. Historically, the company has worked with influential brands like Marvel, Star Wars, Transformers, and Nintendo for its licensed product launches. According to Ally Simpson, senior manager at Hasbro Games, Fourth Wing 's intensely dedicated fanbase, commercial success, and bestseller list placements made it a 'no-brainer' for Hasbro. This is the company's first-ever foray into the romantasy genre. 'When Hasbro considers a property for a game, we look at a wide array of factors—from cultural impact, the fanbase and passion, and potential for an engaging and authentic gameplay experience,' Simpson says. 'We analyze sales data, social engagement, and overall buzz to gauge the long-term impact of the brand as well. Fourth Wing has it all.' Hasbro taps romantasy for fresh IP According to a press release, Yarros herself was involved 'in every stage' of the Priorities game development. The game, which involves ranking characters and features from the Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, and O nyx Storm books, is designed specifically to tap into the rise of book clubs among young readers (per the ticketing platform Eventbrite, book club event listings grew 24% in the United States in 2023 from the previous year). Simpson says that Hasbro's development team worked at unprecedented speed to build the game in 'only a few weeks,' so that it could be delivered to fans while the hype is still fresh. Hasbro declined to share further details on what the rest of its collaboration with Yarros will entail. However, Simpson says, the company is actively looking into romantasy as an area of possible future expansion. 'We're always monitoring trends in entertainment and looking for opportunities to create games that resonate with a wide audience,' Simpson says. 'The rise of romantasy is something we've been watching closely, and we believe it has a lot of potential for future game adaptations. As a passionate romantasy fan myself, I can attest to the fact that there is endless opportunity in this space for readers and gamers alike.'
