It’s been a turbulent few months for NBC’s low-rated comedy Up All Night, with the show losing its showrunner, creator, and - just last week - its star Christina Applegate. This comes in the wake of a decision in October to shut down production for a three-month hiatus in order to turn the show into a multi-camera sitcom with a live audience to film the final five episodes of the season. Today, Deadline reports that the remaining episode order has been cut from five to one in the wake of Christina Applegate’s departure Friday. Multi-camera vet James Burrows is being brought in to direct the episode, which will not feature Applegate. There’s no word on whether her character will be replaced or how the change will affect the story, but Deadline says there are rumors NBC is looking at other actresses, including Lisa Kudrow. It’s no surprise that the show’s remaining stars Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph are reportedly receiving pilot offers from other shows/networks. NBC has no comment.
Why not just cancel Up All Night at this point instead of going through the costly process of converting the show into a three-camera show for just one episode that’s unlikely to attract new viewers? Or is this whole thing be to keep in-demand stars Maya Rudolph and Will Arnett from jumping to a competing network during pilot season? There’s no explanation at this point, but this whole situation has been pretty baffling ever since the multi-camera revamp was announced.