Deadline is reporting that the third season of Lifetime drama UnREAL has been delayed until early 2018. Though production has already wrapped after beginning earlier this year, the former summer drama will have over a year hiatus due to Lifetime needing something to pair with upcoming Greg Berlanti drama You.
The hiatus comes at a rough time for the formerly acclaimed satire, which underwent a whopper of a sophomore slump last season that saw it lose both cultural cache and ratings strength. Not only does the hiatus not give UnREAL the opportunity to be fresh in people’s minds during Emmy voting, leaving a poorly received second season finale as the last impression it gave voters, it makes the chances of finding traction with critics and the Nielsens much more difficult. Even if season three is a return to form, it’s very difficult for a show to regain buzz after essentially being persona non grata among critics for two and a half years and something barely averaging a 0.2 taking 18 months off, airing in one of the most congested times of year, and being asked to work as a lead-in just screams disaster for both it and You.
Based on the short film Sequin Raze from Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, who co-created the series with Marti Noxon (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce), UnREAL follows the behind the scenes action at Everlasting, a reality-competition series focused on a suitor finding love among 25 eligible bachelorettes. The series, which will be focusing on a female suitor and won’t showcase drama between its male contestants for its upcoming third season, is most interested in the toxic relationship between young producer Rachel (Shiri Appleby), whose job it is to manipulate the relationships you see on screen, and executive producer Quinn (Constance Zimmer).
After the unceremonious cancellation of Devious Maids last year, UnREAL is the sole on-going original drama at Lifetime. However, the network isn’t out of the scripted business yet, as evidenced by the series order for You.
