Mindy Kaling’s Latest Comedy ‘Not Suitable for Work’ Just Became Her Shortest-Lived Series Yet

Mindy Kaling has spent the past decade building one of the more reliable track records in television comedy, moving from ‘The Mindy Project’ into an increasingly successful run of creator credits across multiple streamers. Between ‘Never Have I Ever’ on Netflix, ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ on HBO Max, and the currently thriving ‘Running Point,’ which has already locked in a third season, Kaling has rarely struggled to find a second season for her projects in recent years.

That streak hit a snag with ‘Not Suitable for Work,’ Kaling’s workplace comedy that marked her first sole creator credit since ‘The Mindy Project’ first launched. The series, produced under her Kaling International label in partnership with Warner Bros. Television, premiered on Hulu in June and followed five work-obsessed twenty-somethings navigating career ambition and messy personal lives in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood.

That run has now come to an end. According to Variety, Hulu has officially canceled ‘Not Suitable for Work’ after just one season, with the show wrapping its run after only nine episodes. Warner Bros. TV, which produces the series, plans to shop it to potential new homes rather than let it disappear entirely.

The series starred Ella Hunt as AJ, Avantika as Abby, Will Angus as Davis, Jack Martin as Josh, and Nicholas Duvernay as Kel, with Jay Ellis also part of the ensemble. The show leaned on a deep bench of recurring guest stars as well, including Victor Garber, Constance Wu, Ego Nwodim, Greg Germann, and Laura Bell Bundy, giving the workplace setting a rotating cast of familiar faces throughout its freshman season.

Kaling executive produced the series alongside showrunner Charlie Grandy and 3 Arts Entertainment’s Howard Klein, both of whom hold overall deals with Warner Bros. Television. The project represented a notable creative bet for Kaling specifically, marking her first time carrying a series entirely on her own creative vision since ‘The Mindy Project’ first debuted on Fox before eventually moving to Hulu for its final three seasons.

Part of what makes the cancellation sting is the gap between how critics and everyday viewers responded to the show. According to Rotten Tomatoes figures cited by Comingsoon.net, ‘Not Suitable for Work’ held a 54 percent critics’ score against an 82 percent audience score, a significant split suggesting the show connected more genuinely with the people actually watching it than with the press covering it.

That disconnect makes Warner Bros. Television’s decision to keep shopping the series elsewhere feel like more than just a formality. With streamers like Netflix or Prime Video representing potential landing spots, and all nine episodes still available to stream on Hulu in the meantime, there’s still a real possibility ‘Not Suitable for Work’ finds a second life somewhere else, even if the odds remain uncertain.

For now, the cancellation marks an unusually quick ending for a Kaling-created project, especially compared to the multi-season runs most of her recent work has enjoyed. Whether AJ, Abby, Davis, Josh, and Kel get a second season anywhere else may ultimately come down to which streamer sees the same audience enthusiasm Hulu apparently wasn’t willing to bet on.

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