Showtime canceled The First Lady after a single season, Deadline reports. The anthology, a one-hour-long drama, followed various first ladies in U.S. history with Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson), Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Michelle Obama (Viola Davis). Davis also served as an executive producer.
While no specific reason was given, The First Lady was not well received by audiences and critics. The consensus on Rotten Tomatoes was that its cast was strong, but although it drew from “a rich history,” it lacked “focus” and “characterization” of these historical women. The scores on the site were 41% (critics) and 58% (audiences).
The First Lady canceled by Showtime after one season
The First Lady was created, written, and executive produced by Aaron Cooley. Every episode was directed by Susanne Bier (The Undoing), who also executive produced. Executive producing with Cooley, Bier, and Davis was Ellen Fairey, Pavlina Hatoupis, Cathy Schulman, Jason Bibiszewski, Andrew Wang, Jeff Gaspin, Brad Kaplan, and Julius Tennon.
The star-studded first ladies were accompanied by more big names. The rest of the cast included O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Barack Obama, Dakota Fanning (The Alienist) as Susan Elizabeth Ford, Lily Rabe (American Horror Story) as Lorena Hickock, Kiefer Sutherland (24) as Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight) as Gerald Ford. Also, starring was Clea DuVall (Veep), Evan Parke (Good Sam), Jayme Lawson (The Batman), Cailee Spaeny (Mare of Easttown), and Michael Potts (True Detective).
Earlier this year, producers Schulman and Bier worked on ideas for a second season. The series could have seen another outing that would have featured Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Hilary Clinton, Dolly Madison, Edith Wilson, Martha Washington, Rosalynn Carter, or Melania Trump.
It might be canceled, but The First Lady is on Showtime for curious history buffs who missed out when it was released. The first episode premiered in April and ended in June.
