Freeform cancels immigration-themed Party of Five reboot after one season

Deadline

Freeform has opted not to renew the immigration-themed reboot of the 1990s Fox family drama. Original Party of Five creators Chris Keyser and Amy Lippman were behind the reboot, revolving around five children whose parents are deported by ICE to Mexico. Party of Five premiered on Jan. 8 to 442,000 viewers and gradually shed its audience, averaging 252,000 total viewers. About 143,000 tuned in for the March 4 season finale. Keyser and Lippman began developing their reboot in 2017 as immigration became a hot topic amid the Trump presidency. “As we began to see the political climate and stories like this on the front page of every newspaper, we began to realize that what we imagined as a family of orphan 25 years ago had transmogrified into a family of kids living without their parents,” Lippman said at the TV press tour in January. “The world they faced is much different from the world the Salingers faced,” added Keyser.