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Marsai Martin suggested her Disney Channel show "Saturdays" got overshadowed due to a lack of promotion by the network.
During the latest episode of the "Baby, This is Keke Palmer" podcast, Martin sat down with the host to discuss the cancellation of "Saturdays," which she executive produced. The show followed a Black all-girl skate crew and ran for 15 episodes before being canceled after its first season in 2023.
“There is always something about just putting our Black girls in the forefront, and that's exactly what we did with ‘Saturdays,’” Martin told Keke Palmer. “And it was so fun and it was so dope while it lasted.”
Martin said her show got tossed to the "wayside" due to marketing issues. Palmer suggested that executives may have been unfamiliar with how to handle a show centered around Black girls in Chicago.
“It's funny ‘cause they'll hype it up too like, ‘Oh, yo, this is my favorite show,” Martin said of Disney's response to the sitcom.
When directly asked why the show was canceled, Martin responded: "Girl, only God knows. I think it’s because they never really know how to promote Black television or films.”
"It just kind of got overshadowed with a bunch of other projects in the lineup,” she added.
The "Black-ish" star noted that it wasn't "an issue" for her to move on from the project, but she felt bad for the show's leading stars, Danielle Jalade, Daria Johns, and Peyton Z. Basnight.
“I’m like, ‘OK, it is what it is,’” Martin said. “We know what happened. But, you know, I think that for our Black girls, our three main leads, for this show to be their breakthrough, in a sense, for being seen… I can never talk about it without getting emotional.
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