It’s official, Nickelodeon’s successful show Sam & Cat has been canceled after only one season.
The show that combined iCarly’s Sam Puckett (Jennette McCurdy) and Victorious’ Cat Valentine (Ariana Grande) as new roommates who get into the babysitting business was a ratings smash hit for the network. Sam & Cat was put on permanent hiatus back in April coinciding with a number of factors.
McCurdy publicly accused Nickelodeon of unfair treatment in late March, unfriended Grande on social media, and failed to appear at the network’s Kids Choice Awards. Grande’s music career was really taking off, McCurdy had some racy pics leaked and rumors of on-set tensions due to a grueling 40-episode filming schedule surfaced. Add it all up and it was apparently too much to overcome.
Ariana wrote a lengthy message of thanks and farewell to the show to her fans. In part it read:
I want to thank Nickelodeon for making a childhood dream of mine come true, for being a family to me, for being so accommodating and supportive of my multitasking with my music career, and for of course introducing me to many of my fans however many years ago. I want to thank Dan Schneider for allowing me to play such a special, beautiful character who I hid behind for so long. What I mean by that is when I was younger, people loved Cat so much I used to pretend to be more like her. It took me a long time to be brave enough to separate myself and show people how different we actually are…. I think that’s honestly because I admire her so much. Her appreciation for life and everybody she encounters. Her passion and genuine excitement for the little things that most people dread like school projects and work. She always saw negative obstacles as opportunities to make things good.
Jennette, who hasn’t publicly addressed the end of the show, wasn’t mentioned in Grande’s adieu. Nickelodeon kept their statement short and not so sweet, “Nickelodeon will not be producing more episodes of Sam & Cat. We are very proud of the show and its very talented cast and we wish them all the best.”
