Clean Slate Cancelled: Laverne Cox-Led Series Ends After Just One Season at Prime Video
It always stings when we have to report this kind of news, and unfortunately, it’s becoming way too common: Clean Slate has been cancelled after just one season at Prime Video. The heartfelt comedy series, led by Laverne Cox and George Wallace and executive produced by the late TV legend Norman Lear, was officially axed by Amazon Prime Video just weeks after its February 6 premiere.
The announcement that Clean Slate was cancelled came directly from Cox, Wallace, and co-creator Dan Ewen, who shared the news in a powerful guest column published on Deadline this past Friday. It was Lear’s final completed project before his death in 2023, and despite years of development and just eight episodes aired, Amazon decided to pull the plug by the end of March. As the trio put it: “A seven-year effort was gone in a puff of server exhaust.”
In the column, the trio didn’t shy away from expressing their disappointment, but they did it with the same wit and honesty that made Clean Slate so special. “We’re not gonna sit here and pretend we’re the first show to get cancelled. Hell, four shows were zapped while you read this,” they wrote. “We humbly thank those at Sony and Amazon who worked on and on behalf of Clean Slate. It is a privilege and a joy to make a living in the creative sphere, let alone while telling a story of import. You helped make it all possible.”
They continued, pouring out the kind of raw emotion that fans of the show will instantly recognize. “Of course, we mourn our baby. We mourn for the jobs that disappear with this news. We mourn the continued demise of non-IP creations (for the record, we would’ve gladly thrown some dragons into Harry’s car wash, or made Desiree a secret agent). We mourn full seasons. We mourn Norman, his bravery, and his not infrequent cursing. We mourn sister projects that face a similar fate. We mourn the characters being scrubbed from storytelling out of fear.”
But they didn’t close the door entirely, “Conversations will continue about where and how Desiree and Harry’s journey might continue … We will push to keep the story alive, for the sake of the kind of people portrayed in it, the kind of people being legislated out of existence, or erased from history books.”
And that’s the heart of why Clean Slate mattered—and why Clean Slate being cancelled feels like such a loss.
The series followed Harry Slate (Wallace), a stubborn, old-school car wash owner in Alabama whose life gets flipped when his estranged child—whom he once knew as a son—returns home as a proud trans woman named Desiree (Cox). As father and daughter attempt to mend their fractured relationship, they also become unexpected roommates, embarking on a belated coming-of-age journey filled with laughter, love, and second chances.
But the story didn’t stop there. Harry’s right-hand man, Mack (Jay Wilkison), found himself falling for Desiree, giving us a tender romance that bloomed quietly but beautifully. Desiree’s return also sent shockwaves through her hometown: from her closeted best friend and choir director Louis (D.K. Uzoukwu), who was pushed to confront his own truth, to Louis’s mother Ella (Telma Hopkins), who began a surprising connection with Harry, to feisty neighborhood rivalries and sweet new friendships with dreamers like young Opal (Norah Murphy). The world of Clean Slate was messy, warm, and oh-so-relatable.
It’s devastating to see a show with such heart and such importance be cut short before it really had a chance to find its place. It’s hard not to be frustrated. In a social and political climate where trans people are being relentlessly targeted, the loss of a show that put a Black trans woman front and center—without trauma porn, without sensationalism, just with love and complexity—is more than just another cancellation. It’s another blow to visibility and representation.
We’re deeply sad to see Clean Slate go. We wish it had been given the time and support to grow into the cult hit it so clearly had the potential to be. Like the cast and crew, we mourn the loss of this joyful, necessary show—and we hope for a future where this kind of headline isn’t so common. A future where LGBTQ+ stories aren’t just told, but nurtured, supported, and allowed to thrive beyond one season.
Until then, we’ll keep pushing for more. More stories. More visibility. More love.
Season 1 of Clean Slate is available to stream on Prime Video. Follow us on X and Instagram for all queer stuff!
Featured Image: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.
