America Ferrera to Leave "Superstore" after 5 Seasons
by Nellie Andreeva
February 28, 2020


"Superstore" star and executive producer America Ferrera will be leaving the NBC comedy series following its current fifth season, which wraps April 16th.

The announcement of Ferrera’s pending exit comes two weeks after the series, from creator Justin Spitzer and Universal Television, was renewed for a sixth season.



The last five years on "Superstore" have been some of the most rewarding, enriching and enjoyable years of my career. Producing, directing and acting with this wonderful cast and crew has given me opportunities to grow as a person and storyteller.

I’m so grateful to my partners at NBC and Universal Television for the support and belief they have always placed in the show, and I’m most thankful to the brilliant Justin Spitzer for creating the funny, smart and relevant world of "Superstore" and inviting me to be a part of it. As I start the next chapter for my family and career, I wish only the best, and much continued success, to my beloved "Superstore" family.

https://deadline.com/2020/02/america-ferrera-leaves-superstore-after-5-seasons-exit-1202870788/

Will the series carry on without her?

Will the series carry on without her?it was already renewed for season 6

Superstore star Lauren Ash on America Ferrera's exit: "It sucks. And it’s heartbreaking" (https://www.instagram.com/p/B9Ikc1LlTuv)

"Well, huge day for Superstore," Ash wrote on Instagram following Ferrera's announcement (https://www.primetimer.com/item/America-Ferrera-announces-shes-leaving-Superstore-after-this-season-njSBpW) that this season will be her last on the NBC comedy. "Where to even begin? The cast started this journey as strangers and quickly became family. The idea that one of our family members isn’t going to be around anymore after 5 years, well, that’s tough for me to accept. Cause the thing is, as Dina and Amy’s friendship grew, so did Lauren and America’s. It’s not gonna be the same without her. But, Superstore has always done an amazing job of reflecting real life situations and challenges. And these kinds of things are a part of life. People we love have to move away or move on all the time. And it sucks. And it’s heartbreaking. But it’s a real part of life. And I don’t know of any show better to tackle what that’s like, than ours."

They have an amazing cast, it will be a shame to lose Amy/America. She's a wonderful actress and I've liked her since she was on Ugly Betty. The other actors will have to step up and keep things funny and interesting, which I'm sure they will do. I'm wondering if they will get someone new to be the store manager or if Glenn will return to that job?

America has one child and another on the way. I assume she wants to spend more time with her family.
https://deadline.com/2020/02/america-ferrera-leaves-superstore-after-5-seasons-exit-1202870788/

She has a Netflix series also. She likely wants to work on other projects.

As far as Superstore, I suppose Dina will take the female lead, and it will add more cast members.

I hope the show any new cast members won't be boring like ones on The Office after Michael left.

Superstore Cuts Season Short Due to Coronavirus — Will America Ferrera's Amy Get a Proper Farewell? (https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/superstore-cuts-season-short-due-215527541.html)

America Ferrera‘s big farewell as Amy may be pushed to next fall. The exiting Superstore actress confirmed on Friday that NBC’s No. 1 comedy is shutting down production on Season 5 sooner than anticipated due to the coronavirus pandemic, a move that could inhibit the show’s ability to properly conclude her character’s storyline.

“Today is unexpectedly my last day shooting on Superstore for this season,” Ferrera announced in an Instagram story late Friday. “We are shutting down production, as they are all shows on the Universal lot.”

An NBC insider confirms that Superstore will not be able to shoot its planned season finale — episode 22 — as a result of the widespread coronavirus-fueled work stoppage gripping Hollywood. As a result, the penultimate 21st episode, which wrapped production on Friday, will now function as the Season 5 finale.

In the aforementioned Instagram story, Ferrera hinted that she might return next season to ensure Amy gets a proper goodbye. “I assume [this] means we’ll be coming back when things clear up to finish Amy’s storyline,” she said. “But I’m about to shoot my last scene [of Season 5]… right now.”

It was two weeks ago (during simpler times!) that Ferrera announced that she was leaving Superstore after five seasons (https://tvline.com/2020/02/28/america-ferrera-leaving-superstore-season-6-amy/) to “start the next chapter for my family and my career.”

Superstore is one of 70+ series (view complete list (https://tvline.com/feature/cancelled-tv-shows-list-coronavirus-production-delays-1171349/)) permanently halting or delaying production on their current seasons amid the escalating global coronavirus crisis.

An NBC spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

She has a Netflix series also. She likely wants to work on other projects.

As far as Superstore, I suppose Dina will take the female lead, and it will add more cast members.

I hope the show any new cast members won't be boring like ones on The Office after Michael left.

Ben Feldman: I wasn't "terribly surprised" America Ferrera is leaving Superstore, "but I think, timing wise, I was a little surprised" (https://tvline.com/2020/03/24/superstore-america-ferrera-leaving-ben-feldman-interview-jonah-amy/)

Feldman says Ferrera's decision came towards the end of the season so that Superstore writers didn't have time to build to her exit. "Fortunately, there were certain elements of what they’ve been building towards that aligned in kind of a lateral way with what they ultimately ended up (doing), so it wasn’t like they suddenly had to rewrite or change everything," he tells TVLine. "In fact, in sort of a coincidental way, some things kind of really worked out for us.” Feldman adds: “We’ve been doing this for a while (and) America has a lot going on, so I don’t think anybody was like, ‘Oh my God! She’s leaving!?’ But I think, timing wise, I was a little surprised. I think we all were. She was, too.”

Ben Feldman: America Ferrera "has every intention to come back" next season to send off her Superstore character (https://tvline.com/2020/04/02/superstore-amy-exit-explained-america-ferrera-leaving-season-5/)

"She wants to see a proper send-off for Amy, so my guess is that’ll be worked into next season," says Feldman in response to last night's episode, which became the penultimate episode when Season 5 was cut short due to the coronavirus crisis.

Oh wow, that's a surprise. I haven't watched this show in a long time but I'm surprised that she would. leave. She seemed to me like one of the stars.

America Ferrera confirms she'll return to bid farewell to Superstore in the Season 6 premiere (https://deadline.com/2020/04/superstore-season-finale-america-ferrera-jonathan-green-gabe-miller-nbc-season-5-1202915009/)

Ferrera, whose final season was cut one episode short due to the coronavirus shutdown, confirmed she'll be back next season while discussing last night's abrupt Season 5 finale. "I was gearing up for a big goodbye to my cast and crew that I’ve worked with for five years who I love so much," she tells Deadline. "I had so much emotion building up and I thought, 'Okay, I’m not going to cry for a month. I’m going to wait for the last week and say my goodbyes in the last week.' When people wanted to talk about it, I was like, 'Nope, nope, nope, nope. Not doing this right now. We’ll do it in the last week.” I was holding it all in and then we got shut down. The Friday that we got shut down, we came into work and they were like, 'This is your last day.' That was jarring and not completely unexpected because we were obviously paying attention to world events and realizing this could have an impact on what happens. The silver lining is that I get to come back at the beginning of the season and see my Superstore family and be a part of the first episode back. I assume that that’s how it’s going to go and wrap up the storyline." Showrunner Jonathan Green adds: "There was no time in between the decision to shut down and the decision from America that she would have to come back for a premiere of next season. That was not even a discussion. It was just sort of a given from both sides. She really wanted to do it and we wanted to give her the farewell she deserves."

ALSO:


Superstore originally planned to have 250 extras for America Ferrera's final episode, but not anymore in the era of social distancing (https://tvline.com/2020/04/23/superstore-recap-season-5-episode-21-finale-amy-leaving-california/): Showrunners Jonathan Green and Gabe Miller say they were on the verge of shooting the Season 5 finale when the coronavirus shutdown happened. Preproduction on the 22nd episode "was well underway," says Green. "The director was prepping it, location scouting, everything… It was that Thursday, before we were about to shoot it the following Monday, that we finally realized that, “OK, we’re going to have to shut things down. There is no way we can produce this.” One of the storylines in the planned finale involved some big crowd scenes. We were supposed to have about 250 extras, and it became clear pretty early that we were not going to be able to bring together that large a group of people, in addition to our crew." Now Green says "it’ll probably be impossible" to have 250 extras in the era of social distancing.

Superstore bosses: Pandemic delay helped us refine how we wrote America Ferrera's exit (https://tvline.com/2020/11/05/superstore-recap-season-6-episode-2-amy-jonah-break-up/)

"The Amy and Jonah story is pretty close to what it was originally, the main difference being that months have now passed in between the decision to move to California together and this episode, when Amy is finally getting to move," says co-showrunner Gabe Miller "And so, over that time, (we have) the additional pressures of pandemic life and Amy having to work two jobs at once, not seeing Jonah as often anymore even though they’re living together. All of those pressures sort of add up and expose some cracks in their relationship. Without the pandemic, and without those months in between, we still would’ve gotten to the same place (of Amy and Jonah breaking up), but it wouldn’t have been for all of the same reasons." Do they feel Superstore benefitted from the changes? "Yeah," says Miller. "It allowed us some time within the show for pressures to build, and (for) that emotional distance (to build between Amy and Jonah), where they realized they weren’t necessarily on the same page. So, yeah, in a way, prolonging things probably helped to make it feel a little more believable, we think." Fellow co-showrunner Jonathan Green adds: "Right. Also, I think the experience of going through this pandemic has made a lot of people sort of take stock and reevaluate their priorities, and think about the future and what they really want. And I think it’s had that effect on Amy as well."

ALSO:


Superstore bosses are grateful America Ferrera agreed to return for two episodes (https://ew.com/tv/superstore-bosses-amys-exit-whats-next-for-jonah/): "We didn't know how easy an ask it would be because she was supposed to be done with us last season," says co-showrunner Jonathan Green. "Even getting her for one, we were excited to have her back for the premiere, but the second we asked, she was on board and understood the idea behind that. I think part of it was that it would allow her to be part of the 100th episode, too, which is a real milestone for the show. We were thrilled to have her back and be part of that."
Superstore bosses wanted their milestone 100th episode to breathe (https://variety.com/2020/tv/features/superstore-america-ferrera-leaving-amy-jonah-1234816118/): “There were versions we talked about where the whole episode would have been one goodbye after another,” says Green. “Ultimately the goodbye video was a great way to get out a lot of that stuff without it having to be Amy going through her day with one person after another saying goodbye. I think part of finding that balance was, as comedy writers, at times pulling back on our natural impulse that when something is genuine or sincere you want to undercut it with comedy. There were really nice moments and we thought we should put in a joke after it, but at times, for this one, we need to let the moment breathe.”
Superstore wanted Ferrera's Amy to have a nice goodbye, but that was hard to do (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-11-05/superstore-nbc-america-ferrera-final-episode-ben-feldman): “It was going to be heartbreaking, no matter what," says Owen Ellickson, who wrote the episode.

I just watched the great finale. Will miss this show but glad they wrapped it up well and did a good job with the finale.

The show definitely needed America Ferrerra though. It certainly felt that when she left, it just wasn't the same. The last few episodes of the final season with America returning were a lot better than the early episodes of this season when they tried to run the show without her, even though a lot of the other actors are good.

The Real Reason America Ferrera Left Superstore (https://www.looper.com/758070/the-real-reason-america-ferrera-left-superstore/)

America Ferrera wanted to move onto the next chapter of her career and life

In "Superstore," Amy Sosa receives a job offer that would require her to move from St. Louis, Missouri to Palo Alto, California. While she wants her boyfriend, Jonah, to move with her, he ultimately decides against it as they each want different things, both romantically and professionally. In a way, it appears as though Ferrera's decision to leave the show also comes down to wanting something different.

On February 28, 2020, the actress took to Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/B9H160OBMQl/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=9e3b3154-9fe4-4e75-a1dd-399545dd199f) to announce her departure from the series. After thanking everyone who made "Superstore" possible, she closes the post by writing, "As I start the next chapter for my family and career, I wish only the best, and much continued success, to my beloved Superstore family." However, Amy Sosa's departure didn't exactly end the way Ferrera and writers initially envisioned.

Ferrera was originally planning on leaving the show for the Season 5 finale (via The Los Angeles Times (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-11-05/superstore-nbc-america-ferrera-final-episode-ben-feldman)). However, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted production, so they couldn't finish the season. As such, Ferrera had to return for the beginning of Season 6, with the first episode depicting what happened at Cloud 9 at the beginning of the pandemic and the second episode showing her leaving. Of course, seeing as how Season 6 was the show's last outing, Ferrera had to come back for the finale, as series creator Justin Spitzer revealed in an interview with Deadline (https://deadline.com/2021/03/superstore-finale-series-creator-showrunners-finding-satisfying-ending-pandemic-future-cloud-9-1234718994/), "As soon as we were told that the show was ending, we called her and said we'd love it if you could do one or two more episodes and she was immediately on board. It just felt like the series finale would not have felt like the end without her. We knew we wanted her to come back to the end of this. We knew we wanted her to come back to the end of this."

Suffice to say, Ferrera's return resulted in one of the most emotionally-satisfying TV finales in the modern era.