Hey, Upper Eastsiders: HBO Max‘s “Gossip Girl” has been canceled, and its series finale will drop on the streamer Jan. 26.
Season 1 premiered in July of 2021, and though it received a critics’ score of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes, Variety‘s Caroline Framke praised it, writing the show “does immediately address one issue that plagued the previous ‘Gossip Girl’ by flipping it on its head in a way that energizes the new one. This time, there will be no guessing games as to who Gossip Girl might be — at least not for the audience.” (In the revival, the embittered teachers at the show’s fictional private school were Gossip Girl.) Season 2 jumped higher on Rotten Tomatoes, but based on fewer reviews.
“We are very grateful to showrunner/executive producer Joshua Safran, and executive producers Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz for bringing us back to the Upper East Side and all the scandals at Constance Billard,” HBO Max said in a statement. “Although we are not moving forward with a third season of ‘Gossip Girl,’ we thank them for the enticing love triangles, calculated backstabbing and impeccable fashion this series brought to a new audience.”
Popular on Variety
Season 2 was greenlit in September 2021, with HBO Max touting the first season had achieved “record viewership” for the streamer. The second season debuted in December 2022.
“So here’s the goss: it is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to announce GOSSIP GIRL will not be continuing on HBO Max,” series showrunner Joshua Safran wrote on Instagram. “The EPs and I will forever be grateful to the network and studio for their faith and support; the writers for their devious brains and dexterous talent; the superstar cast for being the greatest of collaborators and friends; and the crew for their hard work, dedication and love for the project. This was honestly the greatest set I ever worked on, top to bottom. We are currently looking for another home, but in this climate, that might prove an uphill bottle, and so if this is the end, at least we went out on the highest of highs. Thank you for watching, and I hope you’ll tune into the finale next Thursday to see how it all comes together.”
“Gossip Girl” is based on the series of the same name that ran on the CW for six seasons from 2007 to 2012, which was itself based on the novels by Cecily von Ziegesar. The revival follows a new generation of New York private school teens being introduced to social surveillance eight years after the blogger’s website from the original series went dark. Season 2 picked up during the second semester of junior year, with Gossip Girl leaving no stone unturned in her effort to control the scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite.
Jordan Alexander, Eli Brown, Thomas Doherty, Tavi Gevinson, Emily Alyn Lind, Evan Mock, Zion Moreno, Whitney Peak, Savannah Lee Smith and Grace Duah star, with Michelle Trachtenberg guest starring. (Trachtenberg returned to play Georgina Sparks, her character from the original series.)
Safran, who executive produced the original “Gossip Girl,” developed the revival and served as showrunner. Fake Empire and Alloy Entertainment produced the series in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Studios. Executive producers included Safran on behalf of Random Acts as well as Fake Empire’s Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage and Alloy’s Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo. Fake Empire’s Lis Rowinski co-executive produces.
xoxo,
Gossip Girl
