If you’re one of the rare American watchers of Josh Thomas’ tender, hilarious and wonderfully mundane comedy Please Like Me stupendous, you know what Pivot TV is, for it is the channel that Please Like Me — and apparently other things — airs on in the US. And if you’re are indeed of those rare watchers, you might be concerned to know that it’s just been announced that Pivot, which is owned by Participant media, is shuttering.
Variety notes that one potential reason could be engrained in its core concept: to make television particularly tailored to millennials. The problem is that just as it was starting, millennials were turning away from channels and beginning to use the likes of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and even digital versions of cable networks like HBO Now to consume their TV.
There is no buyer for the channel, so it will simply go dark at some point this Fall or Winter. “Looking at the environment, we asked ourselves, ‘Can we compete in this market as a standalone cable television network?’” Participant Media CEO David Linde said to Variety. “The answer was that we would not have been sufficiently competitive to achieve our larger ambition.”
What this means for Please Like Me, and the channel’s other (less) notable series, the Arctic crime drama Fortitude, is unknown. But Please Like Me only airs on Pivot stateside, but it airs on ABC2 in Australia — and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation certainly isn’t likely suffer a plight similar to Pivot. Filming on its fourth season, which was set to debut on November 10, recently ended — so whether or not they air on Pivot, there will, it seems, still be new episodes out there:
When Deadline asked the company if Please Like Me would be shopped elsewhere, their spokesperson remained mum.
Meanwhile, Fortitude also airs on Pivot in the States, but was actually commissioned by Sky Atlantic, who’ve ordered a second season of it — so it wouldn’t be crazy to assume that’ll continue overseas as well.