By Jana Monji, AsAmNews Arts & Culture Reporter
FOX Entertainment’s president Michael Thorn announced this week that the Cambodian and Filipino-driven drama, The Cleaning Lady, will return for a second season. Produced in partnership with Warner Bros. Television, the series has successfully found and retained a loyal audience since its January debut, making it one of the Top 5 new broadcast dramas of the 2021-22 season, ranking as Hulu’s most-streamed FOX debut in the network’s history, and reaching 11.9 million multi-platform viewers in its premiere episode alone.
“This heart-pounding, emotionally driven story has captivated audiences across all platforms with its empowering, suspenseful narrative about an undocumented worker forced to navigate the criminal underworld to save her ailing son’s life,” said Thorn. “The Cleaning Lady bravely and unapologetically takes on many of today’s most important social issues — something we’re proud to say is one of FOX’s long-time calling cards — and it’s all brought into sharp perspective by the powerful performance of our lead, Élodie Yung and the entire cast. Thanks to the incredible talent of Miranda and Melissa and our outstanding partners at Warner Bros., audiences have embraced this story and can now look forward to finding out what comes next for this devoted mother and her son when our show returns for its second season.”
The show stars Cambodian French actress Élodie Yung as a Cambodian surgeon named Thony, who has come to the US for medical treatment for her son Luca (Valentino and Sebastien LaSalle). Reduced to working on a cleaning crew as illegal residents with her sister-in-law Fiona (Martha Millan), after she inadvertently witnesses an organized crime murder, she is drawn into the shady underworld in Las Vegas. Her husband, Marco (Ivan Shaw) joined her at the end of the season as a weak-willed gambling addict in Las Vegas.
RELATED: Elodie Yung shines in The Cleaning Lady
Thony’s relationship with her organized crime connection Arman Morales (Adan Canto), had become more complicated with the involvement and interference of an FBI agent (Oliver Hudson). Also, starring are Sean Lew as Thony’s nephew, Chris, and Faith Bryant as Thony’s niece, Jaz.
The debut episode (11.9 million multiplatform viewers) is FOX’s most-watched drama debut in two years, FOX’s most-watched Monday debut in over two years, and the most-streamed FOX debut on Hulu in network history. The March 14 Season One finale hit a series high in Live + 3 Day streaming, delivering more than 900,000 viewers across Hulu and FOX NOW.
Developed by executive producer Miranda Kwok (The 100) and executive-produced by showrunner Melissa Carter (Queen Sugar), and executive producers Shay Mitchell (You, Pretty Little Liars), David Dean Portelli, Rose Marie Vega, and Paola Suarez, The Cleaning Lady is based on an Argentinian TV series.
On-Demand episodes of The Cleaning Lady are available for customers of Cox Contour TV, DIRECTV, DIRECTV Stream, DISH, Hulu + Live, Optimum, Spectrum, Verizon FiOS, XFINITY and YouTube TV.
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Hurry! I miss the cleaning lady. I simply hate short seasons. I WANT CHA BACK!