The story is inspired by Bayer's own story of overcoming childhood leukemia. Joanna Gold (Bayer) dreams of becoming a presenter for a home shopping channel. She tries to shake off her lifelong label as "that girl with cancer." She moves away from her parents and begins a romance for the first time in her adult life. Joanna also befriends her idol Jackie (Shannon), the shopping channel's charismatic star. This all happens against the backdrop of a highly competitive workplace where people play dirty to succeed. The CEO of the popular channel is Patricia (Lewis), the icy and enigmatic founder.
The first season of I Love That for You, which aired on Sunday nights, averaged 0.01 in the 18-49 demographic and 65,000 viewers in the live + same-day ratings (including playback on DVR until 3 a.m.). It was one of Showtime's lower-rated series in the traditional ratings, but much of the channel's viewership often comes from streaming and timeshift viewing.
Bayer, a veteran of Saturday Night Live, co-created I Love That for You with Jeremy Beiler. The duo served as executive producers alongside showrunner Jessi Klein and Michael Showalter.
Deadline reports that internal efforts were made to get the series renewed, and co-star Rogers claimed a second season had already been written. The series' production company, Annapurna, is expected to begin promoting the series elsewhere, with support from Showtime.
“I Love That for You has completed its run on Showtime,” a spokesperson for the network said in a statement. “We want to thank Vanessa, Jeremy, and Jessi, along with the incredible cast and crew for their hard work and wish them the best going forward.”
It's worth knowing that none of Showtime's series have been renewed since December, following a change in management. Let the Right One In, American Gigolo, and The L Word: Generation Q have all been canceled, while other series in the works have been discontinued and picked up by other outlets.
The cable channel will soon be rebranded as Paramount+ with Showtime as a linear channel and its content will be integrated into the Paramount+ streaming service.
According to Deadline, the new content will fit into three lines:
Complex characters and subversive anti-heroes like Dexter, Your Honor (US), and Yellowjackets, powerful, high-stakes worlds like Billions and Homeland, and culturally diverse takes like The Chi and the upcoming Fellow Travelers.
