HBO Just Cancelled Its Second TV Drama In Less Than A Week, And The Stars Have Responded

With its annual awards prestige and star-studded programming lineup, HBO is one of the relatively few linear TV networks whose content anchors the same conversations that surround popular streaming shows on Netflix, Apple TV+, and beyond. And while the premium cabler isn’t so often at the center of cancellation conversations, given its penchant for limited series, the past week has seen the cancellation of two original drama series. Following the adaptation The Time Traveler’s Wife getting the axe, HBO has now cancelled the period drama Gentleman Jack after two seasons. 

Based in part on the real-world in-code diaries of Anne Lister, whose writings inspired her unofficial mantle as the “first modern lesbian,” Gentleman Jack starred Suranne Jones as the aforementioned Anne, with Sophie Rundle as her partner Ann Walker. The first season debuted in 2019 to much acclaim for the actors, the writing, and the story, though it was clear from the start that the series had a far larger audience in the UK than here in the States.