It’s game over for “The Big Door Prize,” which will not be returning for a third season on Apple TV+, TVLine has learned exclusively. The dramedy, which received an early Season 2 pickup in April 2023 just one week after its series premiere, will not be as fortunate this time around.
Based on M.O. Walsh’s novel of the same name, “The Big Door Prize” told the story of a small town forever changed when a mysterious machine appears in the general store, promising to reveal each resident’s true life potential. Chris O’Dowd starred as Dusty Hubbard, a seemingly content, cheerful family man and high school teacher who watches everyone around him reevaluate their life choices and ambitions based on the machine’s printouts. This forces him to question whether he is truly as happy as he once thought.
While Dusty remains skeptical of the machine, his wife, Cass, played by Gabrielle Dennis from “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” indulges in the dream that there’s something bigger out there for her. Like many of Deerfield’s residents, the couple has lived a relatively safe, uncomplicated life until the arrival of the Morpho machine. However, all of that changes when the community is forced to reconcile with their unfulfilled achievements in pursuit of a better future.
“The Big Door Prize” is the latest casualty for Apple TV+, following the cancellations of musical comedy “Schmigadoon!” and astronaut drama “Constellation.” However, it’s not all bad news for the streaming service, which recently announced renewals for several other series, including “Slow Horses,” “Hijack,” “Invasion,” “The Last Thing He Told Me,” “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” “For All Mankind,” and “Drops of God.”
The show’s second season, which concluded with the episode “Deercoming,” left fans with several burning questions and a deep desire for a third season. The finale ended with another agonizing Morpho-related cliffhanger, leaving viewers wondering about Dusty’s fate and the mysterious figure on the other side of the glass.
Despite the lack of official renewal, “The Big Door Prize” creator David West Read expressed enthusiasm for a potential third season in an interview with TVInsider. He hinted at an escalation of the intensity of what the machine brings to the town, suggesting that the story could go beyond anything the characters could have imagined.
Read explained that Dusty goes on the biggest emotional rollercoaster of anyone in the show, starting out as the most opposed to the machine and becoming the most obsessed with it by the second season. This transformation made it fitting for Dusty to be the first person to enter the next stage of the machine, which Read wants to leave open to interpretation.
A potential third season would likely address Dusty’s whereabouts, the next stage of the Morpho machine, and its impact on him and Deerfield’s residents. It would also continue to explore Cass and Dusty’s marriage, Dusty and Alice’s potential, Hana and Father Reuben’s connection, Trina and Jacob’s breakup, and possibly a Nat and Giorgio New Year’s Eve wedding.
Fans of “The Big Door Prize” will have to wait and see if Apple TV+ decides to renew the series for a third season. Until then, both Season 1 and Season 2 are currently available for streaming on Apple TV+.
Source: TVLine
