It’s the end of the road at Fox for Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the network’s cult cop comedy starring Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher, which was the only remaining Fox comedy series from an outside studio, Universal TV.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine also was the highest-rated live-action comedy series on Fox this season with a 1.3 adults 18-49 Live+7 rating, edging LA to Vegas, The Last Man On Earth and The Mick (all at 1.2). Negotiations with Universal TV went down to the wire last year, with the comedy able to clinch a Season 4 renewal. It didn’t happen this time.
The network today also canceled The Last Man on Earth and The Mick.
Fox
Brooklyn Nine-Nine debuted to decent ratings in September 2013, then quickly scored a Season 2 renewal and a post-Super Bowl slot for its freshman run which also garnered two Golden Globe awards — for Best TV Series – Comedy or Musical and best actor in a comedy for SNL vet and Lonely Islander Samberg.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine never drew wide audiences, with its ratings performance hampered by the constant scheduling moves between Sunday, where it always did well, and Tuesday. After a lengthy winter break, the show returned to its old 8:30 PM Sunday slot this spring as a midseason replacement for freshman comedy Ghosted, improving the time slot.
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Created by the Parks and Recreation duo of Dan Goor and Michael Schur, Brooklyn Nine-Nine centered on Det. Jake Peralta (Samberg), a screwball who happens to be a real good cop. His captain in the NYPD’s 99th Precinct is Raymond Holt, a seen-it-all and emotion-challenged captain played by Braugher, who scored three consecutive Emmy noms for Supporting Actor from 2014-16. Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Joe Lo Truglio, Stephanie Beatriz, Chelsea Peretti, Joel McKinnon Miller and Dirk Blocker also star.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which cuffed a TBS syndication deal in December, is produced by Universal Television, Fremulon, Dr. Goor Productions and 3 Arts Entertainment. The series was created by the Parks and Recreation duo of Dan Goor and Michael Schur, who executive produce alongside David Miner and Luke Del Tredici.
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When news hit on Thursday that the cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine was cancelled by Fox after five critically-acclaimed seasons due to low ratings, fans of the TV show were not happy and showed their disbelief and anger on Twitter.
The TV series was a hit with fans for not only being hilarious, but also for tackling important topics such as racial profiling, sexuality and gun violence in the US. Brooklyn Nine-Nine was also the second-longest running TV show on Fox, behind New Girl.
The show stars Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Melissa Fumero, Stephanie Beatriz, Chelsea Peretti, Joe Lo Truglio, Terry Crews, Dirk Blocker, and Joel McKinnon Miller, many of whom expressed their hope on Twitter that the series would not be cancelled after all.
In addition to fan outrage, celebrities like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Seth Meyers, Mark Hamill and Sean Astin, just to name a few, also added their anger online about the show's unexpected cancellation.
But there's hope: Hulu and TV station TBS have expressed interest in picking up the show, according to Deadline.
Hopefully, Hulu will save Brooklyn Nine-Nine like it did with another fan-favorite previously canceled by Fox, The Mindy Project.
Neither Fox nor Hulu immediately responded to a request for a comment.
An episode about Brooklyn Nine-Nine's characters Jake and Amy's wedding will close out the show as the series finale, airing May 20 on Fox in the US and on Netflix in Australia.
Until then, check out the cast, fan and celeb reactions below.
From cast:
Nine Niners are the BEST fans. Love you all dearly. Waiting with you... #RenewB99 pic.twitter.com/m2ElFa221z — Melissa Fumero (@melissafumero) May 10, 2018
I am still processing... don’t have all the words.. but.. These last 5 years have been incredible. Thank you for all your love and support. We have the best fans. It’s been a huge honor to play Amy and be a part of this tremendous ensemble. NINE NINE! #Brooklyn99 pic.twitter.com/nmBFA2rm6I — Melissa Fumero (@melissafumero) May 10, 2018
I❤️B99 fans — Dirk Blocker (@DirkBlocker) May 10, 2018
I love you fans. I love you squad. It has been an incredible five years. I’m so very lucky, so deeply thankful to have been part of a show that has brought so much joy to so many. NINE-NINE!❤️ #Brooklyn99 #renewB99 — JoeLoTruglio (@JoeLoTruglio) May 10, 2018
Do you know what it means to be heartbroken?
Be. Cause. I. Do. https://t.co/LXUiQwA6QT — Marc Evan Jackson (@MarcEvanJackson) May 10, 2018
From celebrities:
RENEW BROOKLYN NINE NINE
I ONLY WATCH LIKE 4 THINGS
THIS IS ONE OF THE THINGS#RenewB99 — Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) May 10, 2018
Here’s the thing about Brooklyn 99 being cancelled, I don’t want it to be. I love all of those people & they earned the right 2 have a final season victory lap where I could emotionally prepare. Don’t know them. Have nothing 2 do with the show. I’m just a fan who deserves better. — Sean Astin (@SeanAstin) May 11, 2018
News on @Brooklyn99FOX and @LastManFOX is a double gut punch. Two great shows with hilarious writing and terrific ensembles. — Seth Meyers (@sethmeyers) May 10, 2018
Oh NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! 😩😭😫😢 I'm SO not ready to say #ByeBye99. Be forewarned @FOXTV-when networks dump shows I love, I'm known for holding grudges a long, L-O-N-G time. I'm still mad @CBS didn't renew #SquarePegs! 😡#EverythingILikeGetsCancelled https://t.co/NEry6Hrpng — Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) May 10, 2018
From fans:
live footage of me finding out Brooklyn 99 is fucking CANCELED pic.twitter.com/OY6a8HuaUy — Caroline Framke (@carolineframke) May 10, 2018
Was in a meeting when Brooklyn Nine-Nine was canceled. But... this is how I'm feeling pic.twitter.com/3xVo9uBqik — Natalie Abrams (@NatalieAbrams) May 10, 2018
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Here’s my confession: For a long time, I didn’t really get Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I’d seen some of the beginning and been underwhelmed by it. Andy Samberg’s character, Detective Jake Peralta, seemed childish in a way that felt somewhere between dumb and upsetting. Stephanie Beatriz’s Rosa Diaz was gruff and felt one-dimensional. And the worst, to my unenlightened eye, was Melissa Fumero’s Amy Santiago, who came off as an unfun, rule-oriented nag, primarily positioned to harsh Jake’s buzz and clean up his messes. I was not a fan.
I was so wrong. And now that FOX has cancelled Brooklyn Nine-Nine after its fifth season, I’m heartbroken the show won’t be around anymore (though there’s hope yet it could get picked up by another network). It’s not just that it’s developed tremendously from my initial, unimpressed glance – it’s that the show’s project for five years has been to subvert all of those troublesome character types. All the things I disliked from the beginning were also exactly the same things Nine-Nine worked so hard to dismantle.
There’s a fantastic Brooklyn Nine-Nine Twitter thread by David Schwartz going around about the growth of Jake Peralta and the way his character has become a thorough negation of the badass rule-breaker cop archetype. Peralta loves the idea of the bad boy lone wolf, the masculine superhero who saves his friends by being his own man. He loves John McClane and the Rush Hour movies. He loves wearing leather jackets, and code names, and impressive cases, and he begins the series as a dude who would love nothing more than to prove his colleagues wrong while also saving the day. But as that thread by Schwartz argues, Jake Peralta’s entire arc of the series has been about learning how damaging that myth is, and figuring out how to turn off the voice in his head that prods him to put his own need for glory above the needs of his friends.
Jake Peralta’s role on the show has been to slowly orient himself inward, toward his friends, and to subvert the opening premise of his character. It’s true of nearly all the characters. Gruff Rosa Diaz is also dedicated and talented and wildly romantic, and the final (sob!) season of the show has included a beautiful story about Rosa coming out as bisexual. The strange squad admin, Gina, has gotten stranger and less manageable over time, gradually becoming something close to a Shakespearean fool. Hitchcock and Scully, the characters who you’d assume are actually the fools of the group, are more like endearing, obnoxious mascots. Boyle, Peralta’s ever-dedicated partner, could so easily have slid into pitiful hanger-on territory. Instead, there’s a weird, undeniable, and resilient dignity to his goofiness.
Terry Crews’s character Terry Jeffords came into the series as a punchline: a brawny, bald black man whose physicality on any other series would’ve seen him cast as a bruiser, is instead a yogurt-loving nerd and devoted family man. Jeffords has often stayed in that punchline territory – on a recent episode, a gag that involved him catching a bird saw him outfitted in full bomb squad gear, noting, “Terry hates birds.” But Nine-Nine has pushed him elsewhere, too. He’s had to have serious, wrenching conversations with his boss about the reality of being a minority seeking higher rank in the police department, and how to combat racial profiling and stop-and-frisk policies. And more importantly, the opening gag of him (the large black man who loves fantasy novels and Yoplait) has become less of a gag with time and familiarity. It’s just who he is: a walking, caring, delightful indictment of every racist assumption about the threat of black masculinity.
And then there’s Amy Santiago, who so offended me in the beginning. Brooklyn Nine-Nine fully accepts her difficult, rule-bounded overachiever impulses, and it does not let her off the hook for how obnoxious they can be to those around her. The course of Nine-Nine takes the completely predictable (and earned!) route of pairing Amy off with Jake, and much of her personality gets leavened through that relationship. But Amy’s recent ascension to sergeant also brought with it the opportunity for the show to give us the Amy Santiago thesis statement it’s been spinning for so long. Amy’s granted the opportunity to lead a squad, and she immediately realizes that one of them, named Gary, is “an Amy.” She cannot get anything done, and she worries that he undermines her authority. Holt, invariably, corrects her perspective. Being in charge of an “Amy” is a joy, he tells her. It’s a privilege. She should take all the feedback and all the help and all the intense desire for approval, and she should nurture it. Amy’s intensity is not softened or made palatable by her romantic arc with Jake; it’s sharped by her promotion and fostered by her mentor.
Which brings me finally, inevitably, to Raymond Holt. In a medium so littered with cops that you could trip over half-a-dozen and hardly even notice, Holt shines like a glorious beacon of originality and humor. Andre Braugher’s performance as the squad’s stern, finicky, perfectionist, detail-oriented, competitive, righteous, compassionate, paternal, black, gay, John-Philips-Sousa-loving captain is one of the all-time best depictions of a cop on TV. He towers – looms – over the squad room, and every single person in the Nine-Nine desperately want his approval. Holt grants it, time and again, but never when it’s not earned and never with more than a few careful words. He’s a man who greets his husband after a lengthy absence with, “Hello, it’s me, Raymond Holt.” He’s a man who signs his text messages, “Sincerely, Raymond Holt.” Every person he’s ever met must remember exactly who he is, because Braugher plays Raymond Holt like his face should be carved into Mount Rushmore, and yet Holt is also a man who spells out his own last name over the phone, when speaking to his husband. Because that’s the most sensible, careful thing to do. He is magnificent.
I live in hope that Brooklyn Nine-Nine will be rescued by some other outlet. But I know that the ratings of the show got to this point at least in part because its best qualities were never flashy or buzzy. It was never telegraphing its politics or drawing controversial attention to itself. A show about a bunch of goofs who love each other and are kind to each other (and who occasionally make suspects perform Backstreet Boys songs) does not get the same hand-wringing attention as a character with a MAGA hat. The outpouring of grief at its cancellation has been evidence there is an intense need for shows like this anyhow, shows that celebrate humanity and goodness and silliness, and weave those things together with diverse faces and a real insight into the world. If this is all the Brooklyn Nine-Nine we’ll get, I am so thankful for what it’s given us. I feel so silly for all the time I lost.
Photo: FOX/FOX via Getty Images
Today a great cry rose up from sofas everywhere as news spread that Fox was cancelling its cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, starring Andy Samberg, after five seasons. And by that we mean it was the #1 trending topic on Twitter and both Mark Hamill and Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted about it. There’s been more sad buzz around the show’s ending than a gothic beehive, but still, there is hope. Deadline reports that Hulu may be considering saving the show, just like they did with The Mindy Project, another fan favorite that was axed by Fox.
Both Mindy and Brooklyn are produced by Universal TV and 3 Arts, so the way for this deal has basically already been paved. But even if it all falls apart, Hulu isn’t the show’s only option for a comeback. There could be another home for the show at TBS, where the show is already running in syndication. And Kevin Reilly, the current head of the network, was actually the executive who initially helped develop the show. So keep it up, Brooklyn Nine-Nine fans, it seems like this might be the one thing that can be changed through online outrage.
UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter is now reporting that both Netflix and NBC have also expressed interest in reviving the series.
