‘Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty’ Canceled After Two Seasons

deadline.com:

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty has come to an end. After the second season finale Sunday, Creator Max Borenstein confirmed the news on X. “Not the ending that we had in mind,” he wrote. “But nothing but gratitude and love.” Director Salli Richardson followed up on Instagram with “When you give it everything you’ve got, you can have no regrets.

I hope you enjoy the last episode of @winningtimehbo I am sure I will do many more hours of TV and hopefully many features in my future, but I can say that at this moment in time I am most proud of the work we did on this masterful show.” The second season of Winning Time returned to HBO Aug.

6 with 629,000 total viewers across Max and linear telecasts. That was a fall from grace, considering the 901,000 people who tuned in for the Season 1 debut in March 2022.

By May of that year, Season 1 managed to amass 1.6M same-day viewers for the finale. (Although, it might be worth nothing that Season 1 also most likely benefitted from the buzz of March Madness, when basketball is already top of mind for audiences.) The HBO series is based on Jeff Pearlman’s book, Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.