After much speculation, Deadline has confirmed that Disney has cancelled “Big Shot” after two seasons, and it won’t be returning for a third.  “Big Shot” tells the story of Marvyn Korn, who after he is ousted from his position as head coach for an NCAA basketball team, is given a chance at redemption with a coaching position at Westbrook, an elite private high school for girls, and soon learns that the teenage players require empathy and vulnerability – foreign concepts for the stoic Coach Korn.

In the second season, Marvyn’s latest plan toward relevance is to get his team broadcast on ESPN, and his method is to recruit an unlikely player: Ava, a gutsy beach volleyball phenom whose public tantrum got her ousted from her own sport. Between losing their assistant coach Holly Barrett, to a rival school, new friction amongst teammates, a sudden and unexpected proximity to boys, and off-the-court disasters that no one could’ve predicted this season, the Westbrook Sirens have even more to prove.

“Big Shot” stars John Stamos, Jessalyn Gilsig, Sophia Mitri Schloss, Nell Verlaque, Tiana Le, Tisha Custodio, Cricket Wampler, Echeagaray and Yvette Nicole Brown.

The future of the show has been in doubt ever since the second season dropped in October with very little publicity and in a binge-drop format, rather than the usual weekly release schedule, which is often a warning sign when it comes to Disney+ Originals (watch out Doogie).

Shortly after the release of the second season, John Stamos spoke with the Los Angeles Times and revealed how close they were to cancellation after the first season.

“Big Shot” was not getting picked up after last year. We were on episode eight or nine out of 10, and I remember saying, “Let’s just pick the show up now, we’ll take a month off, write new scripts, ‘cause the girls are going to get old.” They’re like, “Let it air first.” It comes out, it does whatever. I said, “Will you pick it up now?” “Well, let’s see a few more shows.” Weeks go by and weeks go by; all 10 come out. So I start calling around. It’s like, “Well, it didn’t do well in India, because they don’t play basketball” — all these analytics and graphs and charts. They know when you turn it on, when you turn it off, when you take a pee, how long the pee was, did you come back after the pee. Once there were the Brandon Tartikoffs [television executive], and these guys who would pick stuff up from their heart. And so I was waiting for that: “Where’s Disney? You guys are about heart.”

I said to myself, “John, take the hit, it’s not coming back.” And then in one of the corniest moments of my life, I go, “Wait a minute — what would Coach Korn do here? Can I look in the mirror and say I did everything I could to get this show picked up?” And Peter Rice [then-chairman of Walt Disney Television] lives down the street from me, so I emailed him, “Do you want to take a walk around the neighborhood?” And I poured my heart out about what the show meant to me. Plus, here’s a show with a 98% diverse female cast. In its DNA it’s about female empowerment. We need these kind of shows. That was on a Thursday; Friday I get this call from the studio, and I didn’t answer because I knew it was going to be bad. And they called [co-creators] David Kelley and Dean Lorey and said, “Sorry, it’s done. We tried.” And then an hour later they called back and said, “Hold on. Apparently John Stamos took a walk with Peter Rice? And Peter told us to try to find the money for it.”

Personally, this was one of the best non-Marvel/Star Wars original shows on Disney+ and it’s a shame it won’t be returning, but the second season did end with a little bit of closure, as some of the characters left the team to head off to college, and Korn decided not to retire, but it was left pretty open for a potential third season.

Created by David E. Kelley (“Big Little Lies”), Dean Lorey (“My Wife and Kids) and Brad Garrett (“Single Parents”) and executive-produced by Kelley, Lorey, Garrett and Bill D’Elia (“Chicago Hope”).  The series was produced by ABC Signature.

Both seasons are available to stream on Disney+.

What do you think of the cancellation of “Big Shot”?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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