Last year, against all odds, HBO stuck with Mike White and Laura Dern’s dark comedy Enlightened after a very low rated first season. But there was no miracle this time, with the network making a decision not to order a third season. “It was a very difficult decision,” HBO said in a statement. “We’re proud of the show and we look forward to working with Mike White and Laura Dern in the future.” Despite improving slightly on Season 1 after moving to a protected Sunday slot after a rough Monday tryout last year, Enlightened still trailed HBO’s other original series. Its second-season premiere drew 300,000 viewers, a third of the viewership of its lead-in, Girls. The show’s first season landed star Dern a Golden Globe though it has not been as popular in the awards circles as fellow HBO female-centered comedies Girls and Veep.
HBO’s ‘Enlightened’ Cancelled After Two Seasons
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BOO! Incredible show.
Let’s start a Kickstarter campaign for Season Three, yo.
I’m with you! Am thinking of other options too.
I’ll kick in! Love that show.
What a bid disappointment, I loved this show and all of the characters. They are the best! I would love to see this show move to a different channel.
I’m in…..
I’m in.
I’m in too!
Yes– show is brilliance!
Enjoyed the first season until it turned into the whole let’s take the company down. And then it became any other lame ass TNT show.
Mike White is a huge talent and so is Laura Dern — but you could really sense the network trying to put them in box.
Seek out recent interviews with Mike White and you’ll see he’s appreciative that HBO did NOT try to put him in a box. They gave him two seasons to do his thing. The results were often great. But HBO’s audience obviously hasn’t responded to the show. Too bad because I love(d) that show.
The whole “lets take the company down” was the premise to the entire show……
I LOVE THIS SHOW!!! Devastating news. Season two was simply exquisite. So sad. What a mistake. I’d watch this over Girls any day.
Mike White is a genius. Laura Dern is superb.
This show was brilliant. Mike White is such a talented writer. This and The Comeback are the two best half hour shows HBO has ever made. Why HBO? Why?
Netflix please!
What corporation do you work for?
Easily one of the dumbest/worst shows on HBO; don’t get me started on the garbage on the alphabet channels that is completely unwatchable(LOST was the only exception). Now they just need to cancel Girls to get rid of all the dead weight.
It’s about time. The show was truly unwatchable.
ENLIGHTENED wasn’t ENGAGING.
This show was beyond brilliant. So sad this has happened. What a mistake.
Really liked this show – very different from other “premium” cable shows that wear their premium-y-ness on their sleeve. Wish this wasn’t happening.
This is sad. Enlightened is a fantastic show; one of the smartest, most compassionate and funny shows on TV. American culture is all the poorer without it.
couldn’t agree more. to find a truly kind and empathetic voice on American television these days is a rarity. and it had wit and humour and wonderful writing and acting to boot. truly sad that it wasn’t valued enough…
here comes more comments on GIRLS
The Professor
Yes Girls is terrible too and should be canceled. There you go.
Such a well written show. I’m a woman who can afford HBO. But HBO clearly doesn’t want my viewership. Between Phil Spector, Boardwalk, there is so much misogyny on this network it is a real turn off. Enlightened took the oppressive world of office politics and make a show that was funny and with depth. Bummer.
AMEN!
So sad. So beautifully written.
I’m sad.
Sad news. Enlightened is such a great show. They should have given it more of a shot. Mike White is just an incredible talent and Laura Dern was stellar
More of a shot than two years? What do you want? A show that sucks and not enough people watch should get a ten-year run?
Sorry, but as a regular dude on the street who has HBO, Laura Dern has absolutely ZERO appeal. She’s a C+ star, okay B-. She’ain’t on the map at all.
if the show was so brilliant then why did it get such anemic ratings?
Laura Dern is not meant to be a bimbo who appeals to boob watchers. Her character is a woman in her 40s trying to figure out how to live a better, more meaningful life while dealing with her own flaws.
Yeah, Plato… and Arrested Development was another not brilliant show because the ratings were shitty?
Jesus.
What a shame, and speaks to what is valued in our industry. This was one of the most amazingly written shows on television. At least we got 2 seasons out of it, and the way it ended wraps it up as a really great “novella” of sorts.
Less then 0,01% of people watched it.
Why make more of what 99,9% of the polulation was not interested in?
Because it was good. That’s why.
99.9% of the population is interested in “Two & a Half Men” and the Transformers franchise. These things may make money, but they suck. And they suck on our culture.
“Enlightened” was a great show with something to say.
A truly great show, but I understand why HBO opted not to renew it given the awful ratings.
Thankfully the season finale makes a pretty good series finale.
Devastated. This was the best thing on TV.
Sad. It never really had much of a chance after being placed behind the ratings bomb that is Girls.
Actually, I hate Girls, but the numbers on it are big.
the numbers on it are not big. not even close and nearly 40% down from last year on the season finale, but good for dunham for turning rubbish into a career. i hope i can do the same with my mediocre writing.
Please do your research…
The article clearly states that Enlightened lost 2/3rds of its GIRLS lead-in. Pretty sure the problem was with Enlightened itself.
Sorry to see that it never caught on with the audience. This was an amazing show that I really enjoyed watching.
BOO!
This was one of the best shows on TV. This is crushing.
never felt better to cancel HBO than the call I just made.
Damn it, and it was just getting good! 2nd season so much better than first.
SPOILER
But they brought down the Abaddonn. What would be next?
Wow. I think many are going to say this season was genius and that finally people were catching on to how great this show is/was. While everyone was going on and on about GIRLS, Enlightened had secretly become one of the best 1/2 hours on TV. Let me be the first to say this is really sucky news. At least Amy “won” in the end. Thanks LD and MW! GREAT JOB!
A shame. One of the best shows on television. The writing in season 1 was so beautiful and real. Season 2 focused less on the spiritual state of the characters and more on the corporate takedown subplot, as a result things were not as emotionally engaging this time around. Regardless, thank you Ms. Dern and Mr. White for producing something so true and daring.
A truly stunning television series. And quite frankly, one of the greatest series of all time, even with just two seasons.
Congratulations to Laura Dern and Mike White on such a remarkable achievement.
Cue people expressing outrage over a show nobody watched.
Obviously, the people expressing outrage watched it.
I quote Steve Martin in “LA Story:” “I don’t think you appreciate how unattractive hate is.”
Cue moronic remark by someone who probably thinks The Bachelor is quality television.
Best show on tv…brilliant!
really sad to see it go….mike white-Laura Dern,–Please go into amazon-hulu-netflicks, and get another season going….
IM cancelling hbo now…
cant watch another self important mini series ….
Dougie, out!
Just cancelled my HBO. I can watch high rated mediocrities on network television.
Between this and THE COMEBACK you really need to wonder if HBO cares at all about it’s programming.
Aw, c’mon! THE COMEBACK was 8 years ago! Are you worried that HBO will cancel your favorite show in the year 2020?
Grrr!! Arrgh!! Carnavale!!
The second season was just so lovely. Hopefully more writing like this will find homes…great job, Mike White and team.
maybe this will free up money to bring back ‘mind of the married man’!
I know the numbers were low but it seems like HBO needs shows like this to say to the creative community, hey we’re still open to trying and nurturing something different. I love GIRLS too but this show was more profound. HBO puts on a lot of good stuff BUT I would think they could try a little harder to put on good stuff that doesn’t always have to include tits. Tits, HBO. You’re addicted to tits.