Recovery Road, a teen drama revolving around one girl’s struggle to overcome addiction, will not be coming back for a second season at Freeform.
The newly rebranded network, formerly ABC Family, aired the 10-episode first season earlier this year, finishing it out in March. Unlike network brethren Pretty Little Liars, Switched at Birth, and The Fosters, the scarcely promoted show didn’t catch on with viewers and – despite mixed-to-positive reviews – barely registered with the mainstream.
Writer Holly Sorenson broke the bad news over Twitter earlier today.
i am as proud of @RecoveryRoad as anything ive done and i didn’t create it. im heartbroken it ends after ten amazing episodes.
— Holly Sorensen (@HollyBSorensen) May 14, 2016
Freeform’s silence about a future for the series seemed to indicate that a renewal was unlikely, but the network is an odd duck in the same vein as The CW, targeting a very specific audience and so demanding less significant ratings from its original programming offerings. Recovery Road, however, may have skewed too serious for a network prone to trashier offerings like the aforementioned PLL and supernatural-romance-fantasy-thriller Shadowhunters.
Based on Blake Nelson’s 2011 novel of the same name, Recovery Road charted teenager Maddie Graham’s time in rehab as she tried to overcome her alcohol and drug addictions. Constructed as an ensemble series, it starred Jessica Sula, Sebastian de Souza, Daniel Franzese, Alexis Carra and Kyla Pratt.
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