Amazon Prime Video u-turns on ‘Peripheral’ & ‘League Of Their Own’ renewals as strike bites

A League Of Their Own

Amazon Prime Video has u-turned on previous second season commitments for scripted duo The Peripheral and A League Of Their Own, as the impact of the US writers begins to be felt on screens.

Sci-fi show The Peripheral had been extended into a second season in February having debuted in autumn last year, with Amazon Studios producing alongside Warner Bros. Television and Kilter Films.

A League Of Their Own, meanwhile, had been due a four-part second and final season to wrap up its run, but producer Sony Pictures Television (SPT) have now been left to find an alternative home for the show.

It is a contemporary take on the 1992 film of the same name, exploring the formation of a women’s baseball league during World War Two but delving deeper into subjects such as sexism, racism and homophobia.

Scripts for the show had been completed prior to the strike, but the production hiatus has been blamed for disrupting planned launch dates for both series.

The second seasons of The Peripheral and A League Of Their Own had been slated for 2024, but would likely haver been pushed a year later due to the industrial action, causing a pile-up of programming.

A League Of Their Own was co-created by Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson, who also stars. She dismissed the reports of an overload of programming, writing on social media that “to blame this cancellation on the strike is bullshit and cowardly.”

She added: “But this post isn’t about all that. About all the ways this show has been put through the ringer…”, referring to US reports that claimed Amazon had looked to diminish the promotion of storylines about players’ sexuality in marketing the series, following testing data.

The streamer reportedly then ditched the ranking system based on audience score.

It is not the first time that second seasons have been hit in recent years. During the pandemic, production hiatuses caused length gapes between seasons, with some streamers rowing back on previous commissions.