Fox has renewed The Cleaning Lady (US), starring Élodie Yung, for season four. According to sources, the order is for twelve episodes.
Although expected, the renewal was not straightforward and involves a change in showrunner. The crime drama, co-produced by Warner Bros. Television and Fox Entertainment, had to pivot and adapt the storyline this season when dealing with the tragic loss of its male lead, Adan Canto, who passed away from cancer.
Linear ratings for The Cleaning Lady (US) – as well as those of Fox's other drama series that aired new episodes this season, Alert: Missing Persons Unit – are down double digits. A +131% increase from Live + Same Day to 3.6 million multiplatform viewers helped The Cleaning Lady (US) close the gap.
Furthermore, The Cleaning Lady (US)'s finances are expected to improve significantly in season four with no deficit and strong international revenues, making it a lucrative business proposition for the network, which co-produces with main studio WBTV.
Negotiations between Fox and WBTV over the renewal continued for weeks, until the final day before last week's Fox Upfront presentation. Sources report that one of the last unresolved issues was episode count, something that often surfaces as broadcast networks try to cut costs by ordering fewer episodes of their series, impacting studios as the practice increases per-episode budgets by worse depreciation rates.
As The Cleaning Lady (US) is at a crossroads and in need of a revamp following Canto's death, she is expected to take a new creative direction next season. Miranda Kwok, who developed the series, and Jeannine Renshaw, who both served as showrunners and executive producers for season three, will not return in that capacity. The search is on for a new showrunner to succeed the duo, who navigated the complexities of production during difficult times for the series - and the industry, which is fresh off a double strike.
Kwok, who will take on an executive role on The Cleaning Lady (US) in season four, will now focus on her development at Warner Bros. Television, including a project with Berlanti Productions.
Hailed for its diverse cast as the first Southeast Asian drama, The Cleaning Lady (US) centers on Thony De La Rosa (Yung), a Cambodian-Filipino former surgeon who, along with her sister-in-law Fiona (Martha Millan), makes a living as cleaning lady. After witnessing a murder, Thony is offered a job as a cleaner and as a doctor within a criminal organization that could pay well enough to help her son and her family.
In the current third season, the stakes for Thony are higher and more intense than ever, from the loss of her protector Arman (Canto) to Thony's efforts to bring Fiona (Milan) back to the US after being deported to the Philippines.
Eva De Dominici, Kate Del Castillo, Santiago Cabrera, Sean Lew, Faith Bryant and Sebastien & Valentino LaSalle also star in the series, based on an Argentinian format.
Season three, whose two-hour finale airs on Tuesday, May 21, is produced by Kwok, Renshaw, Rose Marie Vega and Paola Suarez. Shay Mitchell and David Dean Portelli are executive advisors.
Fox has three new drama series planned for next season. Two of these, the John Wells-produced Rescue: HI-Surf and the medical drama Doc, starring Molly Parker, have been postponed due to the strikes. The third newcomer, the Canadian co-production Murder in a Small Town, is part of Fox's international content initiative.
In addition, two dramas that were expected to release a new season in 2023-24 but did not, largely due to strike-related delays, are 9-1-1: Lone Star and Accused (US).
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