‘Uncoupled’ Saved by Showtime After Netflix Cancellation

The Neil Patrick Harris rom-com series Uncoupled is coupled again. Weeks after Netflix canceled the series, Showtime has saved it with a second-season order.

According to Deadline, which reported the resurrection, Uncoupled should be “edgier” and “racier” in its new home on Showtime, which will soon be called Paramount+ with Showtime.

The site also reports Uncoupled fits into “Metro Cultures,” one of the three content areas that new Showtime boss Chris McCarthy has in mind for the premium cable channel, alongside The L Word: Generation Q and The Chi. (The other two content areas are “Complex Characters” — as in Dexter and Yellowjackets — and “Powerful Worlds” — as in Billions and Homeland).

Netflix canceled Uncoupled in mid-January, and MTV Entertainment Studios initially was unable to get the show a new berth at Showtime, but that was before the channel announced its rebranding and its shift in programming strategy.

Created by Modern Family writer Jeffrey Richman and Sex and the City creator Darren Star, Uncoupled stars Harris as real estate agent Michael Lawson, who finds himself abruptly dumped by his longtime boyfriend.

“Overnight, [Michael] has to confront two nightmares: losing the man he thought was his soulmate and suddenly finding himself a single gay man in his mid-forties in New York City,” Netflix added in a logline.

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Harris previously told TV Insider that Uncoupled is “not trying to take itself so seriously, and yet it’s dealing with serious emotional circumstances that everyone has gone through or fears going through, and then it’s played out in front of you,”

The first-season cast also included Tuc Watkins as Michael’s ex, Colin, Emerson Brooks, and Brooks Ashmanskas as his friends Billy and Stanley, Tisha Campbell as his co-worker Suzanne, and Marcia Gay Harden as his client Claire.

Showtime’s Uncoupled save means fans will finally get closure on the Season 1 finale cliffhanger, in which — spoiler warning — Watkins’ Colin returns and tells Michael he made a mistake leaving him.