Behind-The-Scenes Drama Forces ‘Sam & Cat’ Cancellation

Despite being a boon to ratings, Nickelodeon’s popular Sam & Cat will not be renewed for another season.

“Nickelodeon will not be producing more episodes of Sam & Cat,” a network spokesperson tells The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. “We are very proud of the show and its very talented cast and we wish them all the best.”

After the show became a hit, Nick extended the season to 40 episodes — essentially two seasons in one. Emotions ran high as the stars and crew felt exhausted and taken advantage of. The actresses felt they should’ve been able to re-negotiate their salary with Nick and desperately wanted a break.

At the same time, Grande’s music career took off and she didn’t want to put it on hold for the show. And on the personal side, McCurdy was dealing with the controversy of nude photos of her being leaked.

The morning of July 13th, Grande Tweeted a link to her own statement on the show’s cancellation.

In the announcement, the actress carefully thanks the people she’s worked with while differentiating herself from the character she was hired to portray.

What I mean by that is when I was younger, people loved Cat so much I used to pretend to be more like her. It took me a long time to be brave enough to separate myself and show people how different we actually are…. I think that’s honestly because I admire her so much. Her appreciation for life and everybody she encounters. Her passion and genuine excitement for the little things that most people dread like school projects and work. She always saw negative obstacles as opportunities to make things good.

The rest of Grande’s announcement is available on TwitLonger.

The rumors circulating about our contracts and our salary not being equal are absolutely ridiculous and false. I don’t know who’s putting these idiotic quotes out there but I thought I’d straighten it out and try to end this nonsense. As far as the show goes, I don’t know what’s happening because I’m not directly involved with the problem but I just wanted to address this one rumor in particular because I am NOT making more money than my costar, nor do I think I should be. So we can all move on and get out of our heads that this was a money thing cause I don’t play like that at all. I am, have always been and always will be about equality and fairness.