The Other Two Ends Abruptly After Staff Complaints Against Its Creators

The Other Two is done. Today’s season three finale of Max’s acclaimed showbiz comedy will in fact be the series finale, The Hollywood Reporter reports, after several staff complaints against the show’s creators and showrunners Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider. According to the Reporter, Kelly has faced multiple allegations of verbal abuse from writers and crew, with Schneider essentially aiding and abetting him. Those charges led to an internal investigation during which the two weren’t allowed on set; they were “formally cleared of wrongdoing” by the investigation, as the Reporter notes, but the show is still coming to an unexpected end.

Apparently Kelly and Schneider’s behavior wasn’t exactly secret within the industry. As the Reporter notes, Tina Fey joked about the two being “monsters” at an awards show earlier this year, and the Reporter quotes one source who says that “other writers tell stories about The Other Two writers’ rooms like other people tell ghost stories.” Given The Other Two‘s caustic depiction of showbiz toxicity, it’s either ironic or completely unsurprising that its own culture was apparently toxic. Kelly, the show’s streaming host Max, and its producers at MTV Entertainment Studios declined to comment to The Hollywood Reporter, while Schneider apparently couldn’t be reached.

Kelly and Schneider came up through Saturday Night Live, writing there for several seasons before becoming co-head writers during their last year on staff. SNL impresario Lorne Michaels has long been accused of fostering an unprofessional workplace; as Mo Ryan wrote in her recent book Burn It Down, “abuse and toxicity are not just permitted but often celebrated” at the sketch comedy show. Most damningly the show and its network NBC were named as co-defendants in a 2021 lawsuit against former cast member Horatio Sanz by a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted as a minor while at official Saturday Night Live functions in front of multiple employees and cast members. (That case was settled in late 2022.) Obviously there’s no way to tell how Kelly and Schneider’s allegedly toxic behavior on The Other Two was influenced by what they learned and experienced at Saturday Night Live, but just as the SNL connection helped the two writers launch The Other Two, it also helps explain these allegations. It’s an ignominious end to what’s been one of the better TV comedies of the last few years, one that survived an ill-fated original run on Comedy Central before becoming an HBO Max exclusive with its second season, but hopefully revelations like this will help make TV a less toxic industry.