NBC’s ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ needs a streaming miracle to survive
The fate of this Detroit drama depends on how well reruns perform on Peacock
Audio By Carbonatix
[
{
"name": "GPT - Leaderboard - Inline - Content",
"component": "35519556",
"insertPoint": "5th",
"startingPoint": "3",
"requiredCountToDisplay": "3",
"maxInsertions": 100,
"adList": [
{
"adPreset": "LeaderboardInline"
}
]
}
]
Only you can save NBC’s Grosse Pointe Garden Society!
OK, that may be the grossest of gross exaggerations, granted. However, it does contain a kernel of truth.
In mid-May the Peacock Network swung a broad ax and canceled five of its prime-time series at once, in part to make room for its acquisition of NBA telecasts next fall. Gone are the first-year drama Suits LA, crime sagas Found and The Irrational (guess Jesse L. Martin can lose those facial scars now), and sitcoms Night Court and Lopez vs. Lopez. But it did not cancel Grosse Pointe Garden Society, the wild and risqué prime time soap-slash-whodunit set in Detroit’s oldest of old money suburbs.
It didn’t renew the series either.
Instead, in a programming move as modern as it may be confusing, NBC decided to hold off making a final decision on GPGS until it sees how its reruns fare on Peacock, the network’s streaming service, over the summer.
“Essentially, we weren’t canceled during that awful [May] bloodbath,” exhales Bill Krebs, the Grosse Pointe Park native who, with his production partner Jenna Bans, created the series, served as co-executive producer, and had a hand in writing every one of the show’s 13 first-season episodes. “However, we are not coming back to NBC. There just aren’t enough slots available in 2025-26 now that they have the NBA.”
Opening to solid ratings last fall but buried in the 10 p.m. Sunday time slot, the series was moved to 8 p.m. Fridays by NBC at midseason in hopes of attracting more visitors to Grosse Pointe.
“We have had an uptick on Peacock,” Krebs reports, “so there has been talk of possibly moving us over to their streamer. We are using this month to gain as many eyeballs as possible.”
In some ways, moving to Peacock would be a blessing for Krebs, who had to write every episode of season one with Bans and the show’s writing team at breakneck speed while the series was being filmed after Grosse Pointe Garden Society was picked up by NBC. “You had to really commit to the storyline because there was no way to go back and change anything once it was shot,” he relates.
“It would be ideal to find a home on Peacock. We’d write all the episodes in advance and not fear getting caught by production breathing down our necks. We’d have all the scripts in front of us to make our story sing brighter and louder. But this month on Peacock predicts our fate.”
So, Krebs is issuing a personal appeal to all Grosse Pointers and metro Detroiters, past and present:
“Everyone should binge the show on Peacock,” he implores. “We are using this month to gain as many eyeballs as possible. Just start it and let it run! It’s the number of minutes that matter, not necessarily the number of episodes watched. But finishing the series counts. It would be great if people could watch until the end. Then watch again…and again…and again!”
Otherwise, sure as Birdie enjoys her occasional martini, Grosse Pointe Garden Society may have seen its final plot.
