'Frasier' Revival Canceled After Two Seasons On Paramount+
He closed his radio show, he closed his daytime show. Could this be the end of all of Frasier?
The blues are calling again. Paramount+ has canceled its Frasier revival after two seasons, essentially making twelfth and thirteenth seasons following the original 11-season NBC run from 1993-2004 at the size of one. While this streamer won’t be involved in a potential third season, CBS Studios, who produces the series, remains committed to the series and plans to shop it to other outlets.
This does make sense, at least in a brand identity way. Cheers and the original Frasier series were both created before Paramount had any sort of major network outlet, thus them originally airing on NBC. UPN launched in 1995 and the first CBS and Viacom merger didn’t happen until 1999. So while Paramount always made the series, it’s not quite intrinsic to the show’s identity that they feel they can’t jump. CBS could have been an option, but between its active comedies and those in development, including a The Neighborhood spinoff reported earlier in the week, there’s just not enough room. Even as the revival brewed and ran, Prime Video and Hulu continued to stream the entirety of the original series. They are now seen as the top candidates for the revival’s new home. The thirteen seasons that currently exist across both series will remain available on Paramount+.
It seems despite being a familiar and beloved show, Frasier could not break through in a major way on Paramount+. By the time it premiered in October 2023, it was already the lone original sitcom that was not a co-production in a sea of Star Trek and Taylor Sheridan dramas. The iCarly revival was freshly canceled and The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder was already written off in January. And no others were ordered in all this time after Frasier’s official order in 2022. The single-camera international co-production Colin From Accounts, being said co-production is produced in such a different framework that allows it to be more viable. If I had a nickel for every Paramount network struggling with original sitcoms I’d have two nickels…at least for those still working with them.
After Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) spent the near 20 years since the original series finale as a talk show host in Chicago, his father Martin died, leading him to move back to Boston to reconnect with his grown son, Freddy, played by Jack Cutmore-Scott, bringing along his Harvard-attending nephew David, played by Anders Keith. Alan, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst, an old Oxford buddy persuades him to stay in town and become a Harvard psychology instructor, introducing him to department head Olivia, played by Toks Olagundoye. Jess Salgueiro is Freddy’s friend Eve, a single mom who became his ex-roommate when Frasier poached him from across the hall. Following return appearances by Bebe Neuwirth as Lilith and Peri Gilpin as Roz in season 1, Gilpin made more in the second, which also saw Dan Butler’s Bob “Bulldog” Briscoe, Edward Hibbert’s Gil Chesterton, and Harriet Sansom Harris’s Bebe Glazer do the same in a trip back to Seattle, while Kelsey’s daughter Greer Grammer took up the role of Roz’s daughter Alice. Both seasons ended with Christmas episodes, the one currently serving as the series finale having Alan reconnect with his estranged daughter.
The series’s showrunners were Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli, as well as Kelsey Grammer, Tom Russo and Jordan McMahon. CBS Studios’s producing was in association with Grammer’s Grammnet NH Productions.
Source: Deadline