Lee Daniels Says ‘Star’ Cast And Crew Are “Heartbroken” Over Cancellation
Lee Daniels has addressed last week’s cancellation of Fox music drama Star.
Daniels and Tom Donaghy co-created the series about three talented singers trying to navigate life’s challenges along with the cutthroat music business.
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As Deadline previously reported, Fox announced on May 10 that it was ending the series after three seasons.
Earlier this week, Daniels took to Instagram to share a message with the show’s loyal viewers.
“To our die hard Star fans, please know this was not of my doing. Our cast and crew are heartbroken,” he wrote using a broken heart emoji.
Daniels included a behind-the-scenes blooper reel in his post, that showed the cast, crew and guest stars having fun on set.
A post shared by Lee Daniels (@theoriginalbigdaddy) on May 11, 2019 at 11:45pm PDT
The series debuted in 2016 with Empire as its lead-in. Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier has called the decision to cancel Star a “tough choice,” and said it was tied to the fact that the network wanted to prioritize Empire as it moves into its sixth and final season.
“We looked at our priorities and were trying to prioritize giving Empire the send-off it deserves,” Collier said on a call with reporters. “The move [of Empire] to 9pm, made it a challenge because Star was always the lead-out from Empire and obviously we don’t have the 10 p.m. hour, so it was another tough choice in a year where we were prioritizing Empire and obviously some of the other shows that we’ve put on the schedule.”
Star featured Jude Demorest, Ryan Destiny, Brittany O’Grady, Queen Latifah, Amiyah Scott, Brandy Norwood and Quincy Brown in the main cast. Lance Gross and Benjamin Bratt also had roles on the show. Star is being shopped around in hopes of finding a new home.
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