It has been nearly four years since Loudermilk season 3 wrapped up, with no news on a potential season 4. As a result, viewers may be wondering what happened to the Amazon Prime Video dramedy.
The series first premiered in 2017 on the AT&T-owned Audience network. It follows Sam Loudermilk (Ron Livingston), a recovering addict who leads a substance abuse support group in Seattle. While Loudermilk’s methods of helping others get clean tend to be effective, they are also quite brash. He is the kind of person that others find simultaneously endearing and infuriating. Given his own struggles, he’s not afraid to tell others hard truths, resulting in some pretty lively AA meetings.
Loudermilk is the perfect dramedy for viewers who enjoy a good dose of dark humor. At times, it gets very real and candid about alcoholism, but it always lightens the mood with its on-point humor. The writing is sharp and witty, the characters are well-developed, and each cast member offers a brilliant performance, especially Livingston. Although it was a top-notch TV series, it didn’t always get the attention it deserved due to coming from a less recognizable network.
However, many viewers are finally starting to uncover this hidden gem, given its recent arrival on streaming. Both longtime fans and new audiences are bound to want more after streaming the show’s three seasons.
Is Loudermilk coming back?
Unfortunately, the chances of Loudermilk getting a fourth season are slim. The show has a complicated history that has left some viewers questioning whether it was actually canceled. The problem with Loudermilk is that it wasn’t canceled in the traditional sense, where the network releases an official statement on the show’s conclusion. Instead, the network itself was essentially canceled. As mentioned above, the show was a hidden gem because its home was on the small AT&T-owned network Audience. By 2020, AT&T announced it was shutting down the network to shift its focus to support HBO Max as the HBO Max Preview Channel.
The decision to end Audience wasn’t wholly unexpected, given that it struggled to gain a large viewership, and HBO Max was a more lucrative endeavor for AT&T to pursue. However, it meant that the network’s four original series, Mr. Mercedes, Condor, You Me Her, and Loudermilk, were left without homes. In Loudermilk’s case, it still had a completed, unaired third season when the network shut down. Fortunately, Amazon acquired the rights to stream the series and released the third season on its platform. Recently, Netflix also got licensed to stream Loudermilk and gave its subscribers access to all three seasons, which resulted in a renewed surge in popularity for the series.
It’s important to remember that Netflix and Amazon only gained the distribution rights to the show. No streamer or network has actually picked up the series with plans to continue producing it. In fact, none of Audience’s originals have been picked up for further seasons since the network’s collapse. Similar to Loudermilk, You Me Her got to release its unaired fifth season on Crave and, later, Netflix and Freevee. There’s still a small chance another Loudermilk season could happen, but the show’s distribution rights being picked up and season 3 being allowed to air may be the best that could be done for the show, given its unique situation.
(featured image: Audience)
