Variety has learned that Peacock has canceled the Cold War spy thriller “The Ponies” after just one season.
The series, starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson, originally premiered its eight-episode first season on Peacock on January 15.
It received generally positive reviews from critics, with a 94% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Peacock doesn’t regularly release ratings information for its shows, so it’s difficult to determine exactly how “The Ponies” fared compared to other titles. However, after its release, it failed to appear on the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 chart.
In addition to Clarke and Richardson, the cast also included Adrian Lester, Artyom Gilts, Nicolas Podanyi, Petro Ninovsky, and Vic Michaelis.
The show’s logline reads:
“Moscow, 1977. Two “ponies” (people “not interested” in intelligence stories) work anonymously as secretaries at the American embassy. That was until her husband was murdered under mysterious circumstances in the Soviet Union and the two became CIA operatives. Bea (Clark) is an overeducated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants. Her classmate Twila (Richardson), a fearless small-town girl, team up to uncover a vast Cold War conspiracy and solve the mystery that led to them becoming widows in the first place. ”
“Ponies” was co-created by David Iserson and Susannah Vogel. Both also served as executive producers, with Iserson also serving as co-showrunner and Vogel directing four of the eight episodes. Mike Daniels also served as co-showrunner and executive producer. In addition to starring, Clark also served as an executive producer, with Jessica Rose also serving as an executive producer. Katherine Bridle, Alison Moe Massey, Jared Ian Goldman, and Rosa Handelman served as co-executive producers. This series is produced by Universal Television.
