Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas is more relevant than ever in 2020 -- so why did HBO cancel it in 2019?

The New York Times

“It is very bizarre to think that when we did it, people just weren’t ready to hear about it or think about it,” Wyatt Cenac says of his two-season HBO late-night show, the first season of which focused on the currently relevant topic of police brutality. “I wish I could say, you know what? It was this thing — that’s the reason why nobody engaged with it two years ago and now they have an appetite for it," Cenac adds. With 300,000 viewers in its post-Real Time with Bill Maher timeslot, Problem Areas never gained traction. “I remember being frustrated that it did not get more pickup and more attention at the time,” says Last Week Tonight's John Oliver, an executive producer on Problem Areas. Nina Rosenstein, an executive vice president of HBO programming, said the network was satisfied with Problem Areas. “Content-wise, we were so happy with it,” she said. “It was scheduled in a perfect place. We supported it on air and with marketing. It was teed up for success.” However, she pointed out that HBO measures success in various ways, not just viewership, with focuses on social media and critical acclaim. In this case, she says, “it just didn’t catch fire the way we hoped.” Cenac says he found it odd, though, that HBO didn't push Problem Areas for award recognition. He also notes that late-night shows hosted by Black people tend to be short-lived. “Whatever that thing is, that thing is real,” Cenac said. “There was a pattern that existed. You’ve got two and done, and I am part of that club.” Rothstein says HBO remains in business with Cenac, with a standup special in the works. But Cenac says he sees the standup special as “more of an obligation to fulfill versus something I actually want to do, adding: “I’d kind of lost the itch for stand-up, “but could use the check.”