HBO Cancels 'Vinyl' After One Season

Vinyl, the Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese-produced series revolving around the New York music scene in the Seventies, has been canceled by HBO after one season. "After careful consideration, we have decided not to proceed with a second season of Vinyl," HBO said in a statement. "Obviously, this was not an easy decision. We have enormous respect for the creative team and cast for their hard work and passion on this project."



In April, the series parted ways with its showrunner, Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter, following a season of less than stellar reviews and viewership. Although HBO renewed the series following its two-hour premiere episode, a show of support following a Scorsese-directed pilot that The Hollywood Reporter writes cost $30 million, the network has instead changed course on its $100 million investment.

The decision to cancel Vinyl comes in the wake of HBO's hiring of new programming head Casey Bloys, who took over for Michael Lombardo earlier in the year. Other Lombardo projects, like the Jack Black comedy The Brink and the David Milch-created Luck, were similarly renewed for a second season only to be canned following an underwhelming first season.

Vinyl starred actor Bobby Cannavale as Richie Finestra, the president of a fictional record label, along with Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano and Mick Jagger's son James Jagger. Vinyl was conceived by the Rolling Stones singer and Scorsese nearly two decades ago as a feature film before it morphed into a series in 2015.

"The germ of this started well before I got involved," Winter told WNYC earlier this year. "In 1996, Mick Jagger approached Martin Scorsese and pitched him on the idea of doing a version of the movie Casino set in the world of rock and roll ... 11 years later, Martin Scorsese called me up. He said, 'Listen, I have this other thing. It’s a movie set in the world of rock and roll. I'm doing it with Mick Jagger. Do you think you’d be interested in that?'"