The CW‘s “Nancy Drew” aired its final episode on Wednesday, following last year’s news that Season 4 of the detective series would be its last. At the time, showrunners Noga Landau and Melinda Hsu Taylor said they were “full of gratitude, knowing that we were able to bring this chapter to a close with intentionality,” but executive producer Larry Teng is telling a different story.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, the EP said The CW did not tell the “Nancy Drew” team that the network planned to cancel the show until a “random call 3/4 into our season.” According to Teng, “Nancy Drew” star Kennedy McMann “was in line to shoot ‘The Good Lawyer,'” so her agent called CBS Studios (a production company behind “Nancy Drew”) to ask about scheduling in regards to “Nancy Drew” Season 5. CBS then apparently made a call to The CW “right around the time [the writers] were in prep on Episode 410,” which, unbeknownst to the “Nancy Drew” team, would become the series finale.
According to Teng, CBS “asked the president of the new CW when we would find out about a pickup so we could make scheduling decisions.” Teng says the unnamed network president allegedly told CBS, “Oh, we’re not picking you up, the show is too expensive.” Though Teng did not explicitly state which “president of the new CW” he was referencing, the timing of “Nancy Drew’s” Oct. 26 cancellation implies it was not longtime chief Mark Pedowitz, who exited Oct. 3 as Nexstar closed its acquisition of the CW, and more likely Dennis Miller, who was named to the role later that month.
“Had our Studio not made that call, who knows if we would’ve ever been told. At that point in the season there were only four episodes left to shoot, and the writers were already breaking the finale,” Teng wrote on X. “What a fucking shitty way of telling us we were getting canceled. Thank God the Studio called. Because you all deserved the most proper ending possible. That’s why I praise the writers for pulling it together at the end. It was so glib.”
Addressing fans of “Nancy Drew,” Teng continued, “No consideration for letting Noga and Melinda give you a proper goodbye. No closure. No consideration for the fandom who support and watch this show. I’ve been pissed at the upper brass of this new CW since November. They suck. They have every right to turn a profit, which means canceling shows. But to have clearly known in advance and not tell us until a random call 3/4 into our season is just plain fucking disrespect. I’m glad y’all enjoyed the finale. You deserved that. Long live our #Drewds and the #DrewCrew.”
Teng then alluded to more details about the conversation between CBS and Miller, but said, “I can’t even go there.”
“Nancy Drew” ran on The CW for four seasons from 2019 to 2023.
A representative for The CW has not responded to PvNew‘s request for comment.
So… this could be long. From what I’ve read, the reaction to the series finale have been mostly positive. Now imagine if you watched that finale without us knowing it would be the last episode of #NancyDrew ever. Because that’s what almost happened.
— Larry Teng (@larryteng) August 24, 2023
