Tegan and Sara’s ‘High School’ Canceled at Freevee
Amazon’s Freevee is dropping out of High School.
The ad-supported free streamer has opted to cancel the heartfelt series inspired by the memoir from Grammy-nominated twin sibling performers Tegan and Sara Quin after a single season.
The writing for the cancellation has been on the wall. Despite rave reviews, High School last aired in October 2022 with the formal decision to cancel the show coming nearly two years after the fact.
Sources say Amazon-owned Freevee wanted to renew High School for a second season, with executives in late 2022 expressing enough optimism for showrunner Clea DuVall to open a mini-room to craft a sophomore run. Ultimately, sources say the completion rate for High School left Freevee and Amazon execs little choice but to cancel the series despite the fact that scripts for an entire second season had already been completed.
Freevee (then called IMDb TV) ordered the coming-of-age dramedy to series in May 2021, with showrunner Duvall also set as director. The streamer turned to TikTok twins Railey and Seazynn Gilliland to play Tegan and Sara, respectively, the following March. The series premiered in October 2022 to stellar reviews. The show is currently certified fresh with a rare 100 percent rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes and an equally impressive 94 percent score from viewers.
In her review, The Hollywood Reporter‘s TV critic Angie Han said High School was an “insightful portrait of teenage self-discovery.” Han would go on to praise the Gilliland twins for their performance in the series, which marked their acting debuts.
The decision to cancel High School comes after Freevee also confirmed that its similarly well-reviewed comedy Primo would also not be getting a second season.
High School’s cancellation is another blow for LGBTQ-themed programming, which has been shrinking in the era of belt-tightening and efforts by streamers and networks alike to find more broad-skewing programming. Amazon, it’s worth noting, scrapped plans for an abbreviated second and final season of the queer-leaning A League of Their Own despite the fact that scripts had already been completed.
Max also axed Our Flag Means Death after a two-season run and Showtime ditched Uncoupled after rescuing the Neil Patrick Harris-fronted show from Netflix after the streamer axed the show. Peacock similarly canceled its updated take on Queer as Folk following a single season.
