The Faking It TV show on MTV has been cancelled after three seasons. The third season finale, on Tuesday May 17, 2016, will also serve as the Faking It TV series finale. Executive producer Carter Covington has tweeted about the rom-com’s cancellation and has spoken to The Hollywood Reporter (THR).

Faking It stars Rita Volk and Katie Stevens as teens who are mistaken as a lesbian couple. When the buzz around their “relationship” makes them popular, the duo decided to fake it. In the THR interview, Covington cited lack-luster ratings as the reason MTV decided to cancel Faking It. In its third season, Faking It has averaged a 0.19 in the 18-49 year-old viewer demographic and has drawn an average total audience of 0.368 million viewers.

Here are Covington’s tweets regarding the Faking It TV series cancellation.

Sad news this morning. For all the #FakingIt fans out there, we're so grateful you loved this show as much as we did https://t.co/x3gihbkGt6

— Carter Covington (@mrcartaire) May 13, 2016

140 characters is not enough to express how I feel about this news. I promise #FakingIt fans I'll share what was to come after finale airs

— Carter Covington (@mrcartaire) May 13, 2016

Here is more on the cancellation of Faking It, excerpted from THR’s interview with Covington:

What were your conversations like with MTV to bring back Faking It?

We have always known that our ratings were on the bubble. As a show, we have delivered —every season has been a little bit of a decision of whether we would get more episodes. We’ve always been prepared for cancelation but when our numbers started coming out for this season, it was very clear that we were not performing as strongly as I would like for it to be a no-brainer for a pickup. Unfortunately, this is a business and we’ve got to attract eyeballs to earn our spot on the network and this season we fell a little short.

Was this decision purely about ratings?

I haven’t heard that there were any creative issues. MTV has been incredibly proud of the show and has always supported it creatively. It was purely a numbers decision. I’m not privy to those conversations so I’m not 100 percent sure.

Had you already gone in to pitch MTV a season four? What did that entail?

I had had discussions with MTV, saying if you do pick us up for one more season to say goodbye to fans, I have a great storyline that I could tell. I did share that with them as sort of a final plea but I think it wasn’t enough to sway the decision.

[…]

Is there any potential to shop Faking It elsewhere for a fourth season?

Unfortunately, MTV owns the show and usually shopping would be started by the studio and we don’t have a studio. There isn’t an entity that could shop it. It would have to be someone asking to buy the show from MTV and make more. And because our ratings weren’t strong, I don’t know if there would be any suitors. Sadly, I think this is the end.

MTV is making a big digital push. Why not continue Faking It as a web-only original? Was that something you pitched?

It wasn’t. It’s a challenge right now because digital budgets are so small, it would be a pretty strong task to renegotiate actor contracts and get everybody on board for a show like that. The economics are so different that it’s a pretty daunting task to do that. I didn’t make that plea; it didn’t seem realistic.

How did the cast respond to the cancellation?

I am so incredibly lucky to work with five amazing actors who not only loved working on Faking It but really embodied the themes of Faking It, in terms of tolerance, acceptance and genuine love for each other. It’s probably the thing that I’m most sad about — that we won’t get to see each other every day at work. We really became a family these past three years. I think people are going to look back on Faking It and say, “Holy cow, look at that cast,” because they’ve all gone on to do so many things. I’m so proud to say that I worked with them at this point in their careers. We made the most of our time together. That’s the one good thing about living on bubble: we always knew we had a special show and we were lucky to get to make it.

Did you prepare next week’s season three finale knowing that there might not be a season four and that it would also have to double as a series finale?

I definitely had it in the back of my mind. My last series, 10 Things I Hate About You ended on some pretty dramatic cliffhangers and I felt like that wasn’t fair to do to fans if I felt like the show may not come back. We worked hard to create a finale where even though we do end on cliffhangers, they’re happy cliffhangers. It’s New Year’s Eve and there are new relationships and everybody is kissing someone at midnight. That felt like a good launching place for a new season, should we get it, and also a happy place to leave fans if this was going to be the end.

You previously told THR that your dream ending would be seeing everyone five years after they’ve graduated from college. How does what wound up being the series finale compare to that?

It’s different. If I could control the universe right now, I’d take these actors and create a new show — a modern take on Friends — and put all these actors in the same parts, post-college, and reboot the show. I think they’re such great actors and their characters are juxtaposed in fun and interesting ways. I was excited to see that and I’m sad I won’t get to. It’s definitely fun to think about. I’ll probably still think about it for many years. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get the band back together.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the Faking It TV series? Do you think MTV made the right decision in cancelling the program? Should MTV have renewed Faking It for a fourth season?