Will There Be a ‘Winning Time’ Season 3? Why Author Is Worried
If HBO ends up canceling Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, it won’t be for a lack of trying on Jeff Pearlman’s part.
The sports writer — on whose book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s the sports drama is based — has been campaigning for fans to tune in, saying he’s worried HBO won’t grant the show a third season.
“Please give Winning Time a shot if you haven’t,” Pearlman tweeted on August 14. “We need (like, really need) strong numbers for a Season 3 to happen. So — tell your friends, family. It’s one of the truly great shows on TV.”
My daily thoughts and some secret (shhhh) details about "Winning Time," the @HBO show (based on my book, "Showtime") that needs eyeballs and views to survive. Everything about this effort has been class, devotion, love, teamwork. Please help keep it going. Thanks. #WinningTime https://t.co/tXikPjMjf8 pic.twitter.com/FLzI8QVZjs
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) August 18, 2023
Two days later, Pearlman wrote, “I’m telling you — the future of Winning Time hangs in the balance. We need viewers. The [WGA and SAG-AFTRA] strikes are crippling. Please help spread the word. Season 2 is amazing. But… HBO is big on [numbers].”
He went on: “And, to be blunt, I’m worried there won’t be a season three. And it’s not about me. I’m fine. It’s about a cast of amazing young actors who live this.”
In Twitter videos, meanwhile, Pearlman said that Winning Time is “fighting for its survival” and observed that the show “is not getting promoted very well.”
Winning Time’s Season 2 premiere on August 6 drew 629,000 viewers on HBO and Max, compared to the 901,000 viewers the Season 1 premiere scored in March 2022, according to Deadline.
In its second season, Winning Time — which stars John C. Reilly, Quincy Isaiah, Adrien Brody, Jason Clarke, Gaby Hoffmann, Jason Segel, and Sean Patrick Small, among others — continues tracking the lives of the ’80s-era Lakers on and off the basketball court.
“This season hones in on the period just after the Finals in 1980 through 1984, culminating in the first professional rematch of the era’s greatest stars: Magic Johnson [Isaiah] and Larry Bird [Small],” HBO said in a press release.
In another plea to Twitter users this week, Pearlman wrote, “No f—king way can a Lakers show end in 1984.”
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO
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