This Fool’s days at Hulu have come to an end.
The Disney-owned streamer has opted to cancel This Fool after a two-season run, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Chris Estrada created the series and starred as Julio Lopez, a 30-year-old who lives with his family and works at a gang rehab center.
Sources say This Fool will remain on Hulu’s platform after the streamer put a big marketing push behind both seasons of the series, which, despite strong reviews, failed to find an audience large enough to justify a third season. Season two last aired in July 2023.
This Fool was produced in-house by Disney’s ABC Signature and was exec produced by Estrada, showrunner Jonathan Groff (Black-ish), Fred Armisen, Pat Bishop, Matt Ingebretson and Jake Weisman.
In an interview with TV’s Top 5, Estrada spoke of reuniting with the creators of Comedy Central’s Corporate for This Fool, a series that was inspired by his life growing up in South Central Los Angeles. To hear Estrada tell it, the idea was for the series to depict the Latino and Black community without judgment and to break free of stereotypes. “I didn’t want to look at the world through the lens of identity but through the lens of class,” he said in 2022 ahead of the show’s debut.
“My mom was a janitor for 25 years and my father made a meager living as bus boy and doing construction. What if what we’re commenting on isn’t about identity but class issues? About not being able to fix your roof? We wanted to show working-class people the way that they live. That resonates.”
Both seasons of This Fool are certified fresh with a 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. THR TV critic Angie Han said in her review that This Fool was “laid-back and funny.”
Frankie Quiñones, Michael Imperioli, Michelle Ortiz, Laura Patalano, Julia Vera, Fabian Alomar and Sandra Hernandez rounded out the cast.
The decision to cancel This Fool comes amid a larger industrywide contraction after the Peak TV bubble burst last year.
As part of the right-sizing of programming slates, Hulu has already canceled series including The Great and How I Met Your Father.
