It feels like only five minutes ago the fandom was celebrating English Teacher’s Season 2 renewal — sharing memes, reposting Brian Jordan Alvarez’s chaotic dancing promos, and manifesting a long, thriving future for the beloved FX comedy. And then, just as quickly, the mood shifted. Deadline confirmed that the network has decided not to move forward with a third season, bringing the show’s run to an unexpectedly early close.
It’s not the news we wanted. But it’s also not the end of what the show meant.
A Surprise Cancellation No One Saw Coming
According to Deadline’s report, FX opted out of Season 3 about a month and a half after releasing Season 2. The timing stings especially because Season 2 itself was a quick miracle renewal — greenlit just four months after the first season aired. For a brief moment, it felt like English Teacher was finally finding its rhythm and its audience.
Then came the curveball: FX decided to call it.
There was no dramatic fallout, no drawn-out negotiations. Just a quiet announcement that left fans blinking at their screens, replaying Alvarez’s joyous Instagram dance videos, and thinking, Wait… what? We just got here.
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A Show That Built Its Own Strange, Brilliant Little World
Created, written by, and starring Brian Jordan Alvarez, English Teacher followed Evan Marquez — a gay high school teacher trying to survive the chaos of American public education armed with sarcasm, delusion, and pure main-character energy.
@brianjordanalvarez
Alongside him were Stephanie Koenig as Gwen, Enrico Colantoni as the permanently overwhelmed principal, Sean Patton as Markie, the gym teacher you definitely know in real life, and Carmen Christopher as Rick, the wildcard guidance counselor with unhinged enthusiasm.
Season 2 continued Evan’s journey through the “political minefield” of high school life, upping the stakes and the jokes without losing the heart that made the show shine.
Alvarez once described it as a “hard comedy” — joke after joke, but grounded in emotion. And he wasn’t wrong. The humor hit. The sincerity hit. Even the chaos hit.
A Win for Queer Representation Done Right
One of the most refreshing parts of English Teacher was that Evan wasn’t just gay; he was gay in a way that felt specific, lived-in, and written from the inside. Alvarez often said that making Evan openly gay allowed him to write jokes and moments that “only make sense from that angle.”
And audiences felt that. The queer community embraced the show not just because it had a gay lead — but because it had a gay voice.
Despite the small audience, the show had 98% on Rotten Tomatoes for Season 1, 100% for Season 2, and multiple nominations from Critics Choice, Spirit Awards, and WGA Awards.
The love was there. The respect was there. The viewing numbers, unfortunately, were not.
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Yes, There Was Controversy
The series wasn’t without bumps — including public allegations against Alvarez made by a former colleague, which he denied and which added scrutiny during the show’s second-season run. The situation didn’t dominate headlines, but it lingered in conversation enough to become part of the show’s complicated context.
Why the Cancellation Still Hurts — But Doesn’t Erase the Win
English Teacher didn’t dominate the ratings. It didn’t become a mainstream monster hit. But it did something that matters just as much: It carved out a weird, smart, very queer corner of TV that felt unlike anything else on air.
It was a show that didn’t try to explain itself. It simply existed — joyfully, loudly, messily — while letting a queer creator lead the narrative. And that, in an industry that’s still weirdly allergic to authentic queer voices, is a legacy worth celebrating.
So yes, we’re sad. A little deflated. Maybe even replaying our favorite Evan moments like a breakup playlist.
But also? We’re grateful. Proud. And hopeful that Brian Jordan Alvarez is nowhere near done telling stories that feel this wild and personal.
FX may have closed the classroom door, but English Teacher earned its A+ on the cultural report card.
>beloved FX comedy
Really? Really!?!
What this all actually reminds me of is what felt like the far more drawn-out cancellation for the likely more “beloved” by a larger (but still not significant) audience of gays and those ever-important “gay ally’s” and, in many ways, the more interesting, and more actually ‘gay’ comedy project on Hulu, also a situation comedy, the Nathan Lane lead Mid-Century Modern. MCM had it’s problems, especially considering the pedigree behind it, and that canned laugh track was not the least of ’em. But TET was all-over the place, with serious reviewers calling it a ‘tragedy masquerading as a comedy and failing at both’ as my local paper, the LA Times, did. It has mixed to average reviews for a reason and it’s not the cancelled ‘gay-related’ comedy sitcom to be writing long, forlorn stories about.
I liked it