NBC’s ‘La Brea’ Likely To End With Abbreviated Season 3 As Networks Start Building Strike Contingency

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: NBC earlier today announced that its sci-fi drama La Brea has been renewed for a third season. I have learned that the pickup is for six episodes and that it was influenced by the possibility of a writers and/or directors and actors strike, with this likely being the show’s final chapter.

Filming is slated to begin in March in Australia. With the current WGA contract expiring May 1 and the DGA and SAG-AFTRA contracts up June 30, a potential work stoppage could impact the start of production on the new broadcast season, leaving the networks without fresh episodes of scripted series for the first few weeks of the fall.

Possibly with that in mind, I hear NBC approached the cast of La Brea about doing a short third season. Because the series regulars have a 10-episode minimum guarantee (meaning that they have to be paid at least 10 episodic fees a season regardless of how many episodes are produced), the network and sister studio Universal Television asked the cast to reduce their contractual minimum guarantees to six episodes, sources said.

In exchange, I hear the actors were offered a release from the show after Season 3 — which they took — making them available to take other jobs. (A typical broadcast series regular contract is for six seasons.) This means that La Brea would most likely end with Season 3. (There a small chance that the show could continue with a new family beyond that, played by a new cast.) The possibility of strike(s) is expected to boost the renewal chances of other series like La Brea, which are facing cancellation this season, as they could get episodes written — and possibly produced — ahead of the potential work stoppage, getting them ready for fall.