Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist meets lackluster end with cancellation at NBC
NBC and Peacock opted to not renew the musical drama for a third season.
TV News Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
Consider this Zoey’s swan song. Following the finale of the second season, Peacock has passed on picking up the Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist for a third season, following failed negotiations to move the series from NBC to its sister streaming platform.
The Jane Levy-led series follows an intelligent computer coder in San Francisco who suddenly begins to hear the deepest thoughts and desires from those around her, expressed through song. In the second season, viewers see Zoey grieve the death of her father, take on a new job and and embark on a new relationship. The season finale left viewers with a cliffhanger, as the fan-favorite central couple reunite, with an unexpected twist.
The series also starred Alex Newell, Skylar Astin, John Clarence Stewart, Mary Steenburgen, Andrew Leeds, Alice Lee, Michael Thomas Grant, Kapil Talwalkar, Lauren Graham, and Harvey Guillén. Creators and producers hope that this is just an interlude, as Lionsgate TV continues to shop the third season around.
“In a world where finding loyal and passionate audiences is never easy, we believe there must be a home for this great, award-winning show with a passionate and dedicated following,” Lionsgate said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
Creator Austin Winsberg shared the news on Twitter, with a call for fans to support its continuation somewhere else.
“Okay. Here we are. The news is out. NBC/Peacock have decided not to go forward with another season. We can discuss that later,” Winsberg says. “But right now I refuse to believe the show is dead. There is too much love and goodwill and the fan base is incredible.”
In addition to its dedicated fan base, the series won some awards for its first season. Earlier this year, Levy received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Actress in a Musical/Comedy Series. Choreographer Mandy Moore won an Emmy for Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming in 2020 for her work on the first season.
78 Comments
Post mortem:
So I really wanted to like this. I loved Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and this show seemed like a pleasant enough off-brand substitute. And I do love me some Jane Levy, who appears in great stuff, but has never quite caught fire like she deserves. But the show definitely had some problems.1) Zooey’s love interest utterly bored me. I got no chemistry between them, and I couldn’t even tell you his name. I did not care at all about the two of them together.2) The show had a lot of faulty logic. To wit: if she’s hearing the inner feelings/thoughts of someone, why are there scenes where many people sing in unison? Unless her coworkers are a hive mind, it doesn’t make sense, because they can’t all be thinking/feeling the same thing. Therefore, the songs should always have been solos, or the occasional duet. 3) The use of popular songs was a fatal flaw, for me. Yes there are lots of examples of good cover songs, but more often than not, a cover song is going to suffer by comparison, and I felt that in nearly every case, these covers sung just paled in comparison to the originals, and that doesn’t help. Furthermore, why is it just pop songs? Is Zoey hearing their thoughts as song, or is she translating them into songs she knows ? This to me is unclear, and I think it would’ve been more interesting if it had been the former, and we hear songs that reflect a whole range of cultural backgrounds. Maybe one person expresses sorrow through an aria like Dove sono i bei momenti, or another sings Last Kind Words. For a show that strained to be woke, its selection of music was very narrow and white. Or what if the songs had been original ones? Wouldn’t that have spoken more to the individuality of each person, that they have their own song, rather than everyone singing to a pre-selected group of songs that felt reductive? CExG worked because the songs were original and they were fun and campy and self aware. They needed this spirit.4) Following up on 3, I had a real suspicion that many of the actors singing voices were dubbed, which if the case, is another issue. This is fundamental for me, personally speaking. If the part calls for singing, cast someone who can sing. I would’ve rather watched a show of unknowns knowing they had come from a musical background, so I knew I was getting an authentic experience. Please correct me on this if I am wrong. Or maybe lean into the actors’ inability to sing. Most of us can’t sing, but we still do. I think it would’ve been quite beautiful and emotionally raw, to have someone sing a heartfelt song out of tune, because these are supposed to be private moments Zoey is glimpsing, and private moments are often raw and vulnerable. Ultimately, this was a promising concept that they just couldn’t deliver upon, and that’s a disappointment. Because as Glee and CExG have shown, there is an audience for musicals, but you’ve got to take it seriously. Covering a bunch of pop songs isn’t enough.
There was a previous article about the show on here and in the comments, someone called it “Lazy Ex-Girlfriend” because of its reliance on already-existing music.But yeah, I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said (although, Glee was also nothing but song covers, TBF). I’m not sure how much of the cast are/aren’t singers; Skyler Astin and Mo at least are, I know that much (Lauren Gharam was on Broadway too, but she was not fit to sing “Roar” in that one episode).
Lazy Ex-Girlfriend? That’s cold! But apt. And yes fair point about Glee. I think Glee worked because it made logical sense. It’s what glee clubs do, they sing covers of popular songs, and part of the fun is hearing their spin on those songs. Also, didn’t the Glee cast do their own singing? That’s key too. I just didn’t get the feeling that the singing in ZExP was authentic.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure how applicable that nickname was because outside of the song choices, there’s no lack of effort around everything else.Glee cast did their own singing, as far as I know. I haven’t read anything about the cast here not doing their own vocals (though that’s probably because I engaged with anything about the show outside of watching it).
Alex Newell obviously can sing, Skyler has a very strong musical theatre resume (including cast albums),John Clarence Stewart has done stage musicals, Peter Gallagher did a number of Broadway musicals with big vocal demands in the 80s and 90s, Alice Lee was in the original cast of Heathers the Musical, etc… I’m pretty sure any of the other actors I didn’t recognize were at least hired because they could sing.
i’ve just youtubed that roar cover. urgh, that alone is enough for cancellation.
2) Zoey’s powers are both magical & frequently on the fritz. They generally latch on to one person’s thoughts & then extrapolate them to everyone in the immediate vicinity to get the point across. It’s less that everyone has a hivemind than the the dominant heartsong is cancelling out the rest.
I’m with you on this. I will say with regards to your third point, I don’t think they were dubbed. Only because of how godawful Lauren Graham was. Her then later having to sing a duet with Renee Elise Goldsberry was one of the most embarrassing things I have ever witnessed.
5) I think the show was also hampered by the fact that Zoey pretty much just helps her immediately circle of friends and family, as they go through myriad issues. I can see why the show creators went this route, because they thought they were developing the characters more, but honestly, I think the show would’ve been better off going the route of say Wonderfalls or Joan of Arcadia, where each week is about her trying to help someone with whom she has no connection, and all the challenges that poses. Because after a while it got tiresome seeing her always helping her mom or sister-in-law. I wanted to see her have to help, say, a bus driver or a store clerk. This route was hinted at in the beginning when she hears the chorus of many people passing by, but then they never really revisited this. 6) It was a mistake bringing back her dead dad albeit in flashbacks, dreams, hallucinations, etc. I hate when shows do this, or introduce a character’s twin, so they can bring back an actor that was previously on, but killed off. It ruins the sense of finality surrounding the character’s arc, and feels like a cheat.
Much of an episode of Wonderfalls consisted of Jaye getting annoyed by whatever talking animal thing decided to harass her that episode. I’ve never watched Zoey, but I assume she wouldn’t be spending enough time with the bus-driver to need to solve their problems.
Glee took nothing seriously except its own self-importance and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has always seemed like a very personal pet project exploring a number of issues like mental health deeply. And Zoey’s Extraordinary playlist was never going to be that. It’s a rom-com musical. It’s completely okay to not be Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was on the CW, where ratings don’t matter (especially if the show is owned by CBS rather than Warner Bros).
To point three, often Zoey does NOT know what the song is and had to ask other people—so again, that doesn’t really answer why these characters are choosing specific songs (some that it seems they would know, some not).
As others have said, I actually don’t think anyone was dubbed. Auto tuned to Hell? Probably just like Glee (I only somewhat give them a break for this because I presume they had to work quickly, but…) Nearly all of the performers, even Gallagher, have pretty solid musical theatre backgrounds, and those that don’t, didn’t sound great.
Interesting your comment about group numbers making no sense… Sondheim (in a controversial move among his fans) says that he was OK with the film of Sweeney Todd cutting all the chorus numbers because on film he never buys that characters would all be singing the same dialogue/thought. I’m OK with the stylization but…
No way they dubbed the singing. I adore Jane Levy but she’s a bad singer… and the show seemed to know it by having her not sing much. The other actors seemed to be trained singers.
I never watched the show, but wouldn’t someone who was hearing other people’s thoughts occasionally run across someone who was bitter and angry, of just plain hateful? I don’t see a song and dance routine coming out of that.
Great point. The show did attempt to confront mental illness, but it was always explicable, in that it stemmed from loss, or something medical like post-partum. But she never encounters someone who is mentally ill because…they’re mentally ill. As in, people don’t need a reason to be depressed, or angry, but the show never confronted this, only the kinds of mental illness that can be cured through a hug and a Good Will Hunting type entreaty of “It’s not your fault.”
I think they established early on that Zoey doesn’t have to know the songs she hears- she hears something famous but a little old, tries to communicate it to Mo, and Mo is incredulous that Zoey didn’t know it already.dodging the built-in excuse that Jane knows all the songs makes it all the more baffling that they were so limited.
1. Don’t agree, but I can see this. The love triangle/will-they-won’t-they/on-again-off-again stuff didn’t help.2. There’s no logic to apply here. It’s the premise of the show. That’s just the way the power works.3. Hard (but respectful) disagree here. In my experience original songs for TV musicals have a pretty low hit-to-miss ratio. That experience doesn’t include a lot of Crazy Ex Girlfriend, but I’ve seen a couple of a songs, and it my opinion they don’t buck the trend. The advantages of using popular songs are a) their popularity means you already know that people respond to them and b) they are an established emotional language to build a scene around. I am glad that there are TV musicals that take the risk and do new songs – some of them do turn out to be good – but I don’t think that every show has to go that route.4. As others have said, this doesn’t seem to be true.5. I do wish that Zoey’s relationship and grief drama hadn’t dominated the second season and that we got to spend more time with the SPRQ Point gang. But I don’t think Zoey needs to be Highway to Heaven or Quantum Leap.6. Generally agree with this, but not strongly. I think Gallagher did a good job with his appearances this season.
I watched all of CExG and I would say it has a pretty high hit to miss ratio if “hit” is allowed to encompass merely good and not amazing. Very few clunkers and quite a few that you want to replay immediately.
Remember, Zoey got her powers while the MRI tech was playing a Spotify playlist during her MRI.so she has spotify in her brain
True, but that opened up other problems. The show could never quite figure out if this gift was indeed the result of an accident, or if it was something magical or divine. The finale would seem to suggest the latter, which begged the question of why the whole inciting incident was needed, and why they had to be hemmed in with the spotify thing.Ultimately for me, this show’s biggest failure was it didn’t effectively world build. The “rules” were unclear and applied inconsistently, and the whole series moving forward just felt increasingly like they were flying by the seat of their pants.
I am seven episodes behind on this and I am determined to finish it, but every episode is like a chore and I can’t bring myself to watch another. I like Jane Leevy; I like musicals, but I have such little investment in every character and the song choices are so on-the-nose (“The Great Pretender”) or ill-fitting (“Hard Knock Life”) that it’s never emotionally effective for me.From the moment I first started watching, I’m like “oh, it’s secular Eli Stone.” Except Eli Stone actually had a explanation for his visions (God did it! Which is not much, but it’s something). The notion that Zoey’s “powers” have “rules” makes no sense to me because they’re a result of an accident, not God or anything. Like Zoey can’t stop hearing a song until she helps the person who sang it to her. Who or what allows that? Sure, Superman can’t see through lead, but that’s a limitation (of his species), not a “rule.”I apologize for over-thinking or under-thinking about this show. Enjoy your day!
Yes to all this. I may have enjoyed it more than you actually, but I never really gave a full episode my undivided attention, or would think about it after it was over… You’re especially right about the poor way they handle the song choices—either always seeming to be too obvious or too much of a stretch.
Also, I liked a lot of Mandy Moore’s work as choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance, but man did I start to cringe at her always samey choreography on this show.
And yeah, I always sound like a broken record when I bring up Eli Stone as a comparison, but… Eli Stone.
Eli Stone was so good
My DVR died with 3-4 episodes unwatched…and I never felt driven to catch up via NBC’s streaming app. Still love me some Jane Levy, but the show had zero subtlety about when Zoey was on the verge of oscillating between boyfriend A and boyfriend B. The non-romantic, non-family supporting cast were quite good, as was Steenbergen as the mother. (Zoey’s brother, his wife & their first-world struggle to thrive in the San Francisco housing market with just a single income…decidedly less so.)Assuming the show isn’t getting a second life somewhere else, I’d rather try and track down Suburgatory on streaming services than watch the home stretch of Season 2.
It’s on CW Seed!
Steenburgen was goodexcept when she sangher singing was worse than Lauren Graham – but I think she realized her singing voice was not the best
Finish it – Season 2 wasn’t as good as season 1, but it was still a good ride
(and yes, Hard Knock Life was horrible – I thought it was a joke at first)
I gave it a try because I enjoy many people in the cast and really enjoyed Levy in Suburgatory, but I just didn’t like it. I gave it 2 episodes and nah. A friend said he loves it because it’s just stupid and looks like a Gap ad and that sealed it’s fate as a definitely not. I hope to see some of the people in it in other stuff later though.
Curse NBC!Also lowkey curse the AV Club for ignoring it as much as possible.
They had to prepare for their 24 hour coverage of Mare of Easttown.
Plus all the outrage over Ellie Kemper.
yeah seriously, AV Club should’ve covered this fun show
I never watched this show, it was on my to do list but, I wasn’t sure if there were endings and finale or cliffhangers so I waited and now I know there’s a cliffhanger so I won’t watch. Which brings me to my main point, it’s 2021. We’re moving away from the day of selling properties and everything basically being produced in house to live on streaming services. How are we not past the point where there isn’t a middle ground dew made to bring something to a conclusion so that it’s a show that can exist in pertuity?They’ve just killed any reason for people to watch on Peacock knowing that if just stops. It’s such a short sighted decision. The money you spend now would just allow it to be future proof going forward.
Only if the only point of watching a TV series is the ending.
I’m a big believer that TV shows aren’t defined by endings, or at least quality there of.But, it still needs to have that catharsis. It has to have some release. It doesn’t necessarily need to have a conclusion, it can even be more like an ellipsis, but, it can’t leave you with a ripped page.
I wouldn’t call the end of season 2 a cliffhanger. They just introduce something that would be followed up on in a third season. Everything else gets closure.
And, IMO, that’s always the right play if you’re not sure whether you’re going to get picked up or not. Harley Quinn, I think, did a great job of that with their season two finale – it set a potential third season up with teases of some of the themes/ideas they would explore, but it also would’ve functioned as a solid series finale had it not been renewed.
>>I never watched this show, it was on my to do list but, I wasn’t sure if there were endings and finale or cliffhangers so I waited and now I know there’s a cliffhanger so I won’t watch.<
There wasn’t really a cliffhanger; it ended in a good spot in which you could easily envision each character’s future. I think they knew this was a possibility and wrote to that.
Go watch, there wasn’t a cliffhanger. They left a hook for a third season, but the second season ended up with characters in a good place.
I enjoyed the first season, but the second one was much weaker, and the season finale was terrible. I feel sorry for the cast, but I’m not going to miss it.
I think the reason for this is that the showrunner/creator based the first season on his own life experiences (the slow death of a parent), and it infused the show with some real poignancy. The second season felt, to me, like, “OK, they gave us another season – now what do we do?”
Yeah, I wish they had gone into season 2 *starting* with Zoey seeing a therapist to cope with her grief.
I wonder if a third season would’ve been better, or if season 2 would’ve just been a downward trend?
I like Levy a lot and I thought the storylines were fairly compelling. The cast was overall solid. (Skyler Astin will NEVER read as straight for me though.)
But the music just never worked at ALL. Weak song choices, poorly sung even WITH a shit-ton of autotune, and the entire concept does nothing for the main character. Levy was always just awkwardly standing around while other (even minor) characters got to do the big numbers and have all the story arcs. Way to constantly bench your star. It was just a plain bad concept that made no sense both within the universe of the show and as something to build the show itself around. Just . . . bad.
Lauren Graham’s singing still haunts my dreams.
It’s certainly not uncommon in musicals for the lead to stand around and watch while the ensemble does the singing-dancing work. But I agree, it was always so awkward having Zoey just stand and watch while stuff happened around her.
…does Skyler Astin play a decent romantic lead in gay roles? because every time he turns up in straight ones he’s a black hole of anti-chemistry and I’ve been assuming he was just that bland.
I saw him in the Encores off-Broadway semi concert of God Bless You Mr Rosewater (the first Alan Menken/Howard Ashman musical before they did Little Shop of Horrors or the Disney films) where he played the (comic) villain and was great. Which doesn’t answer your question at all, but he was damn charismatic live (interestingly tough, the lead in that was played by the actor he replaced in Crazy Ex-GF, Santino Fontana)
If it does get revived, Max ought to be played by Santino Fontana in its third season for symmetry.
In this, he had way more chemistry with Levy than the guy that played her other bf in this.
Season 1 had some great songs. Surprisingly, Fight Song in Season 1 was a great one – but imo, best song of the series was American Pie in the season 1 finale.
well this sucks. one of the few series with a genderqueer character, some interesting song choices (actually getting me to like a matchbox 20 song instead of just tolerating it), and season 2 adding some interesting new characters was great.
My understanding was that NBC was concerned that Jane Levy may be a Nazi Princess based on something the AV Club wrote, so they cancelled the show, but then learned it was actually Ellie Kemper, but by that point, they had already put out the press release.
I never watched a single nanosecond of this show. The premise seemed so ridiculous that I was, and still am, absolutely sure I wanted to spend my limited and precious time on this Earth doing something else.
And yet somehow you felt the need to tell us about it, and I wasted my limited and precious time reading your comment.
like leaving this comment!
It’s great that you decided to let us all know your thoughts… BYE!
I lost interest in the show season 2. It felt like the show walked away from its central premise to focus on the “love triangle”. And the romantic part of the show was boring.
I streamed Zoey every Monday or Tuesday via Hulu. I originally sampled it because I like Jane Levy, Mary Steenburgen, Peter Gallagher and Lauren Graham. I also thought it was an interesting enough gimmick that nothing was lost by running it on a second screen.This season, I liked the idea of Bernadette Peters recurring, but now that the gimmick had become more of the backbone for the show, it seemed to lose some of the excitement. Instead of the songs feeling like a kind of scripted spontaneousness, you could sort of see them setting up for the production numbers and dance sequences. It felt more like a formula and though they dipped their toes into issues which aren’t usually covered in light programming, you could tell there was a shelf-life for the concept.It wasn’t too far into the second season that I knew if there was something more interesting to stream, I’d start to let the episodes pile-up in my queue and it would only be a matter of time until I’d never get back to it. That didn’t really happen this year because of the pandemic, but once television was back in full force, no matter how much I like the actors and the characters, the gimmick would just be too much.I’m sure they would like to keep going and maybe it would still work on some channel like Freeform, but then they wouldn’t have as much money to license the songs. Though I was still watching, it seems like a good enough place to stop to me, before it got old.I am sure everybody will land on their feet. They are quite good at making show.
The coolest thing about this show is that Mary Steenbergen, who played the mom, actually did experience what happened to Zoey to a certain extent! Obviously she didn’t become telepathic, but she did start hearing everything as musical after an operation.
Steenburgen still hears everything she reads as musical
It seems at least good enough for one of the streaming services.Does it cost a lot? Cause some pretty niche shows seem to make it on Netflix and such.
I watched the first season but didn’t bother keeping up with the second. I feel like Levy—whom I genuinely enjoyed in Suburgatory—seemed kind of out of her depth here and just didn’t have much of a presence in her own show. Also, man do I hate jukebox musicals. I kind of knew that going in, but this show confirmed it for me.
Will no one find a good vehicle for the delightful Jane Levy?
thank fuck. peak-cringe TV.
That was Game of Thrones
Winning performances all around. We liked it but it ended in a good space.
I think my appreciation of each episode hinged primarily on whether or not I recognized the songs and, also, how little the main character’s love triangle garbage played a role in the storyline.
I just didn’t think either of her relationships (or that side trip with a potential relationship with the kid she used to babysit) had any chemistry or anything that made me want them to continue.
Each of the characters was fine on their own, but I would have preferred to see them develop as individuals and find their own relationships apart from each other. The one guy with the tech reporter and the other guy with the girl from New York and the main character with anyone else not currently on the cast would have been fine. Let them go their own ways and grow rather than constantly swirling around each other.
It was a fine show, but I doubt I’ll miss it (or even think of it) when my DVR doesn’t ever have any more episodes recorded. There are lots of shows that I find when I go through and try to clean out my series recording settings every couple years and am like, “oh yeah, I sort of remember that show, I guess it must have gotten cancelled, oh well” and this will be another one of those.
Honestly, my husbands dad is dying of supetnuclear palsy. And for that alone, I will always love this show.
“In a world where finding loyal and passionate audiences is never easy,
we believe there must be a home for this great, award-winning show with a
passionate and dedicated following,” Lionsgate said in a statement to The Hollywood ReporterI’m guessing the PR person also writes the v/o for their trailers.
I will miss this show. Cried a lot during the first season and a some for season two. The first season had a lot more structure and plot compared to the second. It almost could have been wrapped in one season.
Jane Levy and Emma Stone are the same person right? This must have been settled by now
This cancellation, for me personally, is like the McRib being seasonal.My sole motivation for watching was my lizard brain reminding me ‘c’mon!! Jane Levy pretty!!’ There was occasional quips and drama, but the rest was mostly just costuming draped over excuses for musical numbers.
well in 10 years we’ll get another musical TV show. Last time it was Eli Stone, this time it was Zoey, next time can it be an uber driver who hears his passengers sing and he has to help them?
Well, in between those you had Glee and Crazy-Ex Girlfriend.
I liked this show. Call me easy to please, but all I really want in a tv show is to amuse me while I knit, and this was great for that. I got to hear some songs I hadn’t heard in a while (I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by the Proclaimers, for example), and I loved Mo. Shows with singing and dancing tend to bend the limits of logic as to who would actually be singing and/or dancing; the singing and dancing IS the point. I suspend disbelief and let the internal logic of the show go where it will. I hope they find another network to continue season 3.
I gave it a shot, I’m up for the Jane Levy whimsical musical show, but when Lauren Graham sang “Roar” I knew I was done. We have so many options for watching karaoke.
I bet the real reason this got canceled is that Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows demanded a raise.