Class has seemingly been canceled for the students of the fictional Essex College.
“The Sex Lives of College Girls,” the HBO drama co-created and executive produced by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, has been canceled after three seasons, according to Variety. But fear not, for the cast, while the show may have wrapped up, their future isn’t entirely bleak. Deadline exclusively reports that Kaling is seeking to resume the cast’s fictional education on another streaming platform: Netflix.
According to Variety, Max usually doesn’t share viewership data for its original content, but the first two seasons of the program earned significant praise from critics. Season 1 garnered a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while Season 2 received 93%. Season 3, however, faced a much colder reception, with only 29% approval based on reviews from seven critics.
This decline in ratings can be attributed to the departure of Reneé Rapp’s wealthy, and at times aloof, character Leighton Murray. In July 2023, Rapp announced her departure on X, formerly Twitter.
“A lot of queer work gets belittled — but playing Leighton has changed my life,” she wrote. “I love who i am 10x more than I did before knowing her. i hope she gave ya’ll a little bit of that too.”
Season 3, unlike its predecessors, ended without the usual cliffhangers or shocking revelations. But, that wasn’t a product of a network mandate, according to Noble, as he explained to Hollywood Reporter.
“No one told us to, like, wrap up the show or anything like that,” Noble said on mandates about the show’s demise. “I think just me as a creator, I’m losing interest in cliffhangers. I think it’s longer than ever between seasons for logistical reasons within the industry, and frankly, I don’t think audiences like cliffhangers the way that they used to.”
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“The Sex Lives of College Girls” originally followed Alyah Chanelle Scott as Whitney Chase, Renée Rapp as Leighton Murray, Pauline Chalamet as Kimberly Finkle, Amrit Kaur as Bela Malhotra, and later introduced Kacey Baker played by Gracie Lawrence after Rapp leaves the series.
Reps for Mindy Kaling did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.