Breeders: Season Four Premiere Date; FX Announces Comedy Series Is Ending

(Photo by: FX/Sky One)

The story of the Worsley family is coming to a close. FX and the UK’s Sky One have revealed that the Breeders TV series’ upcoming fourth season will be its last.  The show was created by Martin Freeman, Chris Addison, and Simon Blackwell.

A dark parenting comedy series, the Breeders TV show stars Freeman, Daisy Haggard, Alex Eastwood, Eve Prenelle, Joanna Bacon, Alun Armstrong, and Stella Gonet. The show explores the paradox that every parent knows but will never admit — you would willingly die for your children, but quite often you also want to kill them. Paul (Freeman) is a caring father who discovers that he’s not quite the patient man that he thought he was. His parenting partner is Ally (Haggard), a nurturing mother, loving wife, and a skilled businesswoman who has everything under control until it’s not. The third season picks up days after teenage Luke (Eastwood) has punched his dad. Paul’s moved out and is staying at his mother-in-law Leah’s (Gonet) house. He should be lonely but actually, the simpler life has its appeal. Eventually, though, amends with Luke must be made. Meanwhile, Ally has her own problems – with work, her early menopause, and with her increasingly strained relationship with her newly adolescent daughter, Ava (Prenelle). Gallows humor and large glasses of wine only go so far in quelling the angst.

Airing on Monday nights on FX, the third season of Breeders averaged a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 140,000 viewers in the live+same day ratings (includes all DVR playback through 3:00 AM). Compared to season two, that’s down by 45% in the demo and down by 34% in viewership. Since the series is a co-production with Sky One, Breeders is less expensive for FX to produce than other scripted series.

The fourth and final season of Breeders will have 10 episodes and launch on Monday, July 31st. Episodes will stream the next day on Hulu.

The new episodes will pick up five years after Paul and Ally were on the verge of splitting up. They’ll face their biggest parenting challenge yet as 18-year-old Luke (Oscar Kennedy) drops a big bombshell at Christmas dinner. No longer in her brother’s shadow, 16-year-old Ava (Zoë Athena) experiences her own bombshell moment as she meets and immediately falls for the charismatic Holly (Jessie Williams). Meanwhile, Paul and Ally continue to try, fail, and try again as they face their latest parenting challenges.

What do you think? Have you enjoyed the Breeders TV series on FX or Sky One? Are you looking forward to seeing the fourth and final season? Is now the right time to end the series, or would you have watched a fifth season?