One Day at a Time season 4 is heading to CBS this fall, and its showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett is urging fans to rewatch it for a crucial reason. Serving as a Hispanic reimagination of Norman Lear's eponymous yesteryear sitcom, One Day at a Time depicts the story Penelope Alvarez (Justina Machado), a US Army Nurse Corps veteran, who is single-handedly raising her two kids, Alex (Marcel Ruiz) and Elena (Isabella Gomez) while dealing with her own mental and personal issues. The show also features Rita Moreno as Penelope's god-fearing mother Lydia, while Todd Grinnell stars as Schneider, Penelope's landlord, and close friend. Although it's a hard-core multi-camera family sitcom, One Day at a Time has been praised for its bold and responsible portrayal of PTSD, sexual identity, immigration, racism, sexual assault, and sexism.
One Day at a Time debuted on Netflix in January 2017. There, the popular show was renewed through season 3 before being canceled in March 2019. Its cancellation, however, sparked off a campaign from creators and ardent fans, who pushed for the show to be rescued. Finally, following rigorous arbitrations, One Day at a Time was renewed by Pop TV in June 2019. The show premiered its season 4 on its new network in March 2020. But in April, after airing only 6 episodes, the show ended abruptly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the truncation, however, One Day at a Time ingeniously managed to telecast new content; the show collaborated with Canadian animator Smiley Guy Studios to produce an animated special that aired in June.
One Day at a Time's showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett posted to Twitter about the rerun of her show's season 4 on CBS. In her post, she appealed to fans to rewatch the show on the new network to save it from cancellation. One Day at a Time's recent distributor, Pop TV, has faced hard times during the pandemic. Part of their executive team has been laid off, and the network is at a dearth of scripted content. These unfortunate circumstances have yet again held the future of One Day at a Time up in the air. And the show will only be revived for season 5 if its rerun generates satisfactory viewership at CBS (a network also owned by ViacomCBS, like Pop TV).
As it was recently announced, CBS has filled its fall schedule with originals from across ViacomCBS brands. Star Trek: Discovery season 1, One Day at a Time season 4 (premieres Oct. 12, 9 p.m.), and Manhunt: Deadly Games are poised to fill in for scripted content at the network and reality-shows like Big Brother and Love Island have also been extended into the fall. While CBS expects to air fresh episodes of new and returning series in November, the same cannot be said for One Day at a Time. The sitcom's production has likely been delayed until 2021, and it will only resume if the show gets renewed.
While it cannot be denied that One Day at a Time is on the brink of cancellation, the fact that CBS has decided to stick to its commitment of airing the show in 2020 inspires a lot of hope. The network has manifested its faith in the show by touting it as the main attraction of its fall lineup when it could have easily syndicated other prestigious shows like The Good Wife. It is, hence, clear that CBS wants to give the show a fair opportunity to survive. Loyal fans have redeemed One Day at a Time from the doom of cancellation before, so getting the show renewed for season 5 shouldn't really be a mammoth task for them.
Source: Gloria Calderón Kellett