NBC CANCELS Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s Young Rock and Grand Crew – amid ongoing writer’s strike
NBC has canceled Young Rock and Grand Crew as the writer’s strike heads into its sixth week.
Young Rock aired for three seasons and loosely told the story of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s life from his childhood to his wrestling career to Hollywood superstardom.
The show’s story is told from the perspective of the fictional Johnson’s run for President of the United States.
Johnson appeared as his adult self alongside Adrian Groulx as 10 to 14-year-old Dwayne, Bradley Constant as 15 to 17-year-old Dwayne and Uli Latukefu as 18 to 26-year-old Dwayne.
The show also starred Joseph Lee Anderson as Rocky Johnson, Stacey Leilua as Ata Johnson, Ana Tuisila as Lia Maivia and Matthew Willig as Andre the Giant.
Young Rock: NBC has canceled Young Rock and Grand Crew as the writer’s strike heads into its sixth week
Grand Crew: Grand Crew ran for two seasons while Young Rock aired for three seasons
Young Rock hit the airwaves in February 2021 and wrapped its third season in February 2023.
The series was co-created by Nahnatchka Khan and Jeff Chiang, who executive produced alongside Johnson, his ex-wife Dany Garcia, his ex-brother-in-law Hiram Garcia, Jennifer Carreras and Brian Gewirtz.
Grand Crew, meanwhile, has had two seasons since it premiered in December 2021.
The series follows a group of Black friends in their 30s as they deal with life and love and spill all the tea over bottles of wine at their favorite Los Angeles wine bar.
Nicole Byers played Nicky Koles, Echo Kellum played her brother Noah Kohls, Carl Tart played Sherm Jones with Justin Cunningham as Wyatt Fields and Grasie Mercedes as Fay.
Grand Crew’s executive producers included creator and show runner Phil Augusta Jackson and Dan Goor.
Both shows were produced by Universal Television.
NBC did not reveal the reason for the cancelation of the two popular shows.
The WGA has been on strike since May 2 and all writers’ rooms shut down on that day as the scribes took to the picket lines in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and anywhere else productions were shooting.
Wrestling family: Young Rock aired for three seasons and loosely told the story of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s life from his childhood to his wrestling career to Hollywood superstardom
Star: Johnson appeared as his adult self on the show (pictured 2019)
Family: The show’s story is told from the perspective of the fictional Johnson’s run for President of the United States
Wine bar: The series follows a group of Black friends in their 30s as they deal with life and love and spill all the tea over bottles of wine at their favorite Los Angeles wine bar
Two seasons: Nicole Byers played Nicky Koles, Echo Kellum played her brother Noah Kohls, Carl Tart played Sherm Jones with Justin Cunningham as Wyatt Fields and Grasie Mercedes as Fay
At issue for the writers are salary and residuals in the ever changing streaming landscape, the size of the writers’ rooms and the use of artificial intelligence.
While studios and streamers are bringing in billions in profits and paying its top executives hundreds of millions, pay for writers on television shows and movies hasn’t just stagnated, it’s gone down due to the shorter limited run series that are common today.
Where a show got a 22 episode order just a few years ago, shows today air for six to 10 episodes, greatly reducing the pay of the writers, actors and crew.
This week the Screen Actors Guild also voted to authorize a strike should their contract negotiations fail.
