Back in August, CBS announced a homecoming of sorts for One Day At A Time: The reboot, from Gloria Calderón Kellett, Norman Lear, and Mike Royce, would return to its broadcast home this fall, 45 years after the original sitcom premiered on the Eye Network. Lear, Kellett, and Royce first reimagined Lear’s topical comedy for Netflix in 2017, with Justina Machado and Rita Moreno leading the cast and the Alvarez family. Netflix effectively canceled the ODAAT reboot in March 2019, which then led Pop TV to rescue the series in June of the same year, marking the first such time that a network picked up a show that was dropped by a streaming platform (typically, these commutations work the other way around.)
Season four of ODAAT received a warm reception earlier this year, though production was stalled, as with so many other shows, due to the pandemic-related shutdowns. But in June, Calderón Kellett and Royce produced an animated episode of the series to tide fans over (and given them some pointers on how to talk politics with their families.) The Alvarez family’s resilience continued to shine through, as just two months later, CBS announced that the streaming-turned-cable-show would get a network debut on Monday, October 5.
The pastelitos-and-Bustelo celebration briefly seemed to be on hold, as Calderón Kellett tweeted on Sunday that ODAAT’s network debut had been paused.
“One Day At A Time will NOT be premiering tomorrow,” the series co-creator and director wrote after receiving an email indicating that “the Kansas City/New England game is being slid to Monday night.” It’s not clear when the reboot will get its network debut, but Calderón Kellett did thank “those who have been sending love & tweeting. Hope to have good news soon.” The A.V. Club reached out to CBS, which was already in the process of sending out a program advisory with a new debut date for the beloved family sitcom: October 12.
Now, this is all a far cry from Netflix canceling the series one and a half years ago, but audience numbers have weighed heavily on the reboot for the entirety of its existence. Netflix stated that low viewership led to the show’s cancellation on the platform, so no matter how vocal the devoted fanbase may be, ratings remain a concern. Still, there’s no denying the importance of ODAAT when it comes to leading a wave of Latinx-led shows, a fact that Calderón Kellett told The A.V. Club she wears as a badge of pride earlier this year. The reality is, pandemic or none, ODAAT is likely the only Latinx-led show airing on a broadcast network this fall.