Reasons Why Marsai Martin Saturdays Was Cancelled
Marsai Martin Saturdays
Saturdays is an American television series co-produced by Norman Vance Jr. and Marsai Martin. The show aired from March 24th to May 13th, 2023 on Disney Channel.
The series followed the life of a 14-year-old, Paris Johnson, played by Danielle Jalade who forms a skate crew with her best friends Simone and Ari; played by Daria Johns and Peyton Z. Basnight respectively.
The show was well received by the black community and even had a special crossover episode with “Raven’s Home” which premiered on April 28, 2023.
Unfortunately, on November 7, 2023, the series was reported to be cancelled after one season.
In a recent interview with Keke Palmer on her “Baby, it’s Keke Palmer” podcast, Marsai Martin spoke briefly on the cause of the cancelled show.
Why Marsai Martin Saturdays Was Cancelled
The interview, titled “Marsai Martin: From Black-ish to Boss Moves”, was mainly a conversation on Marsai’s journey from a child actor to the professional and producer she is now.
The podcaster and famous actress, Keke Palmer, asked Marsai about her show “Saturday” to which the younger star responded;
“Saturdays was our Disney channel show with our three girls that were in this cool skating community based on the southside Chicago.”
“It was super dope, we filmed it in 2022, I believe. It was exciting, lots of fun, original and different.”
“We worked with some amazing actors that were just ready and excited.”
Keke interjected, “These were the girls you were talking about when you were supporting them in the room when they were auditioning?”, referring to an earlier conversation in the interview where Marsai communicated her dislike towards auditions and expressed how dehumanizing and nerve-wracking it was, especially in the early teenage years, then she made mention of how she helped some girls and tried to calm their nerves when they came by to audition for a role.
And Marsai replied with a smile ”Oh yes! Absolutely. I think there is something about just putting black girls in the forefront. This was exactly what we did with Saturdays and it was so fun and dope while it lasted.”
“I think there is something about things getting put to the wayside due to just the studios,” she continued.
”There is something about the way it is presented too. I think marketing is everything.”
Keke began speaking passionately at this point,
”I mean I talk about this a lot when it comes to our shows. We are in a position where things are easily able to go unseen.”
”You’re just piling everything all in the same bucket and nobody knows where anything is and that’s the marketing bit you were speaking to.”
”But on the other hand when it comes to ‘our’ shows, shows that represent our culture, if there are not a lot of people in positions to understand that it’s beyond being personal— you don’t get it. You don’t know the value and if you don’t know the value of something, then you aren’t able to treat it with that value.”
She went on to explain that she doesn’t know the ins and outs of Saturdays but if it is a show about girls from the southside of Chicago then there may not be that many people in the appropriate positions at the studio that can understand that point of view.
Marsai chipped in; “Yeah, but you know it’s funny ’cause they will hype it up too. Like oh, this is my favourite show. But then, when it comes to promoting it, putting it into the things. You know, at the end being like well, it didn’t do this,” speaking of the people in the studios not doing enough in marketing and then saying that the show didn’t do quite well on the market.
“Yeah, it sucks,” Keke replied.
Then, Keke Palmer went on to ask for the reason why the show wasn’t given another season, and why was taken off the Disney streaming platform.
“Girl, only God knows.’ Marsai replied with a little smile.
“I think it’s because they never really know how to promote black television or films on the platform.”
”I think that when it’s supposed to be further marketed a certain way, it isn’t.”
”Without the means of, in this case, Disney support, it just kind of got overshadowed with a bunch of other projects on the line.”
She went on to say when asked by Keke how the situation affected her vision to put other girls upfront and showcase black girls’ talents, “For me, I know what industry we are in. So, we just keep pushing and grinding.”
“For me, it wasn’t really an issue. Just like ‘it is what it is, we know what happened.’ Okay cool”
“But for our three main lead, for this show to be like their breakthrough for being seen… She trailed off shortly, then continued, “I could never talk about it without getting emotional,” Marsai says with teary eyes and a slight crack in her voice.
Keke then notes that it was “Because we all know what it feels like to be let down and disappointed”
Then the older actress goes on to encourage Marsai on the transitioning period in her journey, saying that it would be okay later and it would all work.
In all, from this interview, the general belief is that the show was cancelled due to the lack of proper and intense marketing by Disney.
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