The third, and incredibly life-affirming, season of One Day at a Time dropped on Netflix earlier this month. Like the two that came before, this new installment is a critical darling, awash in rave reviews, and currently holds a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet, in the punishing sea of peak TV content, near-universal acclaim from TV critics isn’t enough to build a massive audience.
Showrunner Gloria Calderon Kellett explained today on Twitter that the Cuban-American sitcom hangs in the balance. Despite the streaming platform’s support of the show, it will need to see a spike in viewership in order to renew the series for a season 4.
Unfortunately, we’ve been here before. In fact, we only have a third season as a result of fans clamoring on social media and protestations from Latino organizations less than a year ago.
My fellow Latinos, we must spring into action again. In particular, at a time when the president has declared a national emergency to keep immigrants from entering our country – we must protect the tiny amount of positive television representation we have. Ask your friends, your family, your co-workers to stream a few episodes as a favor to you. Tweet about it. Text your friends about it. Call your parents and tell them to watch. If you don’t, this groundbreaking show might not be around for much longer.
Because really, we all need more Rita Moreno in our lives. And once we get it renewed, we can talk about getting Moreno and Justina Machado some long overdue Emmy nominations.