August 23, 2023
Nicola Goode/Prime Video
Amazon has canceled its 'A League of Their Own' series, reversing its earlier renewal of the show for a second season. The show's cocreator and star is Wayne-native Abbi Jacobson (center).
Amazon has canceled Abbi Jacobson's "A League of Their Own" reboot, reversing its earlier decision to make a second and final season of the series.
Prime Video stopping the show after one season is believed to have stemmed from the ongoing writers and actors strikes, Deadline reported. The anticipated four-episode, second season was slated to begin filming before winter.
Jacobson took to Instagram over the weekend to express sadness about the end of the show in which she co-created and starred, while also bashing the excuse that the series was nixed due to the strikes.
"What luck I have had to get to tell these stories and play this character I love so much," Jacobson wrote in the post, which has received over 107,000 likes as of Wednesday afternoon. "To blame this cancellation on the strike, (which is an essential fight for fair wages, protections and working conditions, etc…) is bull**** and cowardly."
Jacobson, who grew up in Wayne, Chester County and attended Conestoga High School, co-created the show wirh Will Graham. Jacobson's other credits include Comedy Central's "Broad City," while Graham was an executive producer on Amazon's hit series "Daisy Jones & The Six."
On Wednesday, Graham posted a thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, expressing his disdain for Amazon's decision.
"To the League fans, We found out this news along with you on Friday. I see the pain and anger and worry out there, which for the LGBTQIA+ fans of the show is of course compounded by what’s happening across the country right now... Amazon is pursuing different kinds of programming, but to the rest of the world this show is a hit and has huge value and even greater potential. But first things first, we have to win this strike and get a fair deal before we can explore what comes next...
In a time when all queer people are personally and politically under attack across the country and HRC has declared a 'state of emergency,' my biggest fear is that the many queer fans of League will take this reversal as one more invalidation, one more blow, one more effect of the general politicization of our identities. Most of us grew up feeling invisible, and as we gain strength, the predictable backlash forces are trying their hardest to get us to go back underground."
Graham also hinted that if the creators find an "avenue to do it well," they may try to make the second season.
"A League of Their Own," which premiered last August, reimagines Penny Marshall's classic 1992 baseball film of the same name. The Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television reboot — with storylines centering on women of color and queer women — follows the Rockford Peaches, a fictionalized version of a real-life team that played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II.
In the first season, Carson Shaw (Jacobson) plays catcher for the Peaches while her husband is at war. She begins an openly lesbian relationship with teammate Greta Gill (D'Arcy Carden). Meanwhile, talented Black player Max Chapman (Chanté Adams) searches for a team to play for, as the AAGPBL never integrated before disbanding in 1954.
Season one of "A League of Their Own" won outstanding new TV series at the GLAAD Media Awards and the National Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign. The show was also nominated for outstanding costume design at the NAACP Awards.
After months of negotiations, it was announced in March that the series would return for a shortened second season. The final season of "A League of Their Own" was going to be billed as a limited series, prompting fan outrage and social media campaigns asking for more than four episodes (the first season had eight).
While an iconic line from the 1992 film says "there's no crying in baseball," the reboot's passionate fanbase is not taking the cancellation lightly. Many viewers took to social media to express disappointment and outrage at Amazon's decision.
I will fight for as long as it takes because no matter what we say, we are absolutely NOT fine without this show! #ALeagueOfTheirOwn #SaveALOTO pic.twitter.com/pRE1VD8Q7L
— Ab (@ALOTOforever) August 22, 2023
us every time the entertainment industry reminds us that they dont care about sapphic stories and that it's just that we are "unpalatable" to their audiences #ALeagueofTheirOwn #SaveALOTO #RenewALOTO pic.twitter.com/641jmiKtrR
— k’aren ♥️ to the five (@darcysversion) August 22, 2023
I will fight for as long as it takes because as @chanteadams put it so eloquently, we don’t just deserve to be seen. We deserve to lead and be the center of the storyline! #ALeagueOfTheirOwn #SaveALOTO pic.twitter.com/eW3GxPAEAG
— Ab (@ALOTOforever) August 22, 2023
my actual face when we got the news aloto was cancelled and i knew i was going to have to fight for it again just to feel like i matter and belong onscreen as a queer person #ALeagueofTheirOwn #SaveALOTO #RenewALOTO pic.twitter.com/ynloy12WUL
— k’aren ♥️ to the five (@darcysversion) August 22, 2023
The first season of "A League of Their Own" can be streamed on Prime Video.
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