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Bad news for fans of this HBO series based on the Los Angeles Lakers Showtime era.
Sunday night’s Season 2 finale is now the series finale as the cable network pulled the plug on “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.”
The show was based on Jeff Pearlman’s 2014 book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.”
The all-star cast included John C. Reilly, Adrien Brody, Quincy Isaiah, Jason Clarke, Solomon Hughes, Hadley Robinson and more.
Max Borenstein, the show’s creator, confirmed the news on X formerly Twitter.
“Not the ending that we had in mind,” he wrote. “But nothing but gratitude and love.”
SPOILER ALERT, the show ended on a sour note with the Boston Celtics claiming victory for the 1984 NBA Championship.
“When you give it everything you’ve got, you can have no regrets,” wrote director Salli Richardson Whitfield on Instagram. “I hope you enjoy the last episode of @winningtimehbo I am sure I will do many more hours of TV and hopefully many features in my future, but I can say that at this moment in time I am most proud of the work we did on this masterful show. #winningtime.”
“9.5 years. We made the show of my dreams,” co-creator Jim Hecht said in a post on X. “That wasn’t the ending we hoped for but very grateful to everyone who watched and @jeffpearlman for trusting me with his genius book.”
In August, Pearlman predicted this as the writers’ and actors’ strikes were underway with no end in sight.
“I’m telling you — the future of ‘Winning Time’ hangs in the balance,” he posted to X. “We need viewers. The strikes are crippling. Please help spread the word. Season 2 is amazing. But … HBO is big on #s. #winningtime.”
Poor ratings definitely played a part in the show’s cancellation.
According to Deadline, the series Season 2 premiered on Aug. 6 with 629,000 total viewers across Max and linear telecasts. Meanwhile, Season 1 premiered with 901,000 people tuning in March of 2022.
Season 1’s finale had about 1.6 million same-day viewers according to the outlet. However, many reports chalked that up to it being aired around the time of March Madness.
“This is strike-related,” said Sam Rubin on the KTLA 5 Morning News. “They didn’t promote the second season at all.”
“That’s a great show and shouldn’t have gone away in that fashion.”
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