Your Honor Season 3: Reason Behind the Cancellation Explained

Bryan Cranston’s crime drama Your Honor abruptly ended in March 2023 after only two seasons, leaving many wondering about the third season.

Based on the Israeli series Kvodo, Your Honor stars Bryan Cranston as Michael Desiato, a New Orleans judge whose teenage son, Adam Desiato (Hunter Doohan), accidentally kills another teenage boy in a hit-and-run.

When Michael discovers that the victim is the son of mob kingpin Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg), he uses his connections to cover up Adam’s crime, pulling them deeper into the mess.

Your Honor season 1 was released on Showtime on December 6, 2020, with new episodes airing weekly until the series finale on February 14, 2021. Your Honor season 2 came almost two years later, premiering on January 15, 2023, and wrapping up on March 19, 2023.

However, a third season of Your Honor never followed, raising questions about whether the series was canceled and why it ended.

1. Why Season 3 Never Happened?

Your Honor was never supposed to go past Season 1 In the first place. The main reason why Your Honor never made it to season 3 is because it wasn’t supposed to be in the first place from the beginning.

When the show was adapted for American television by Peter Moffat, Your Honor was first conceived, written, and produced as a limited series.

What would become “Season 1” was supposed to be the beginning and end of the story, with no intention to continue after the finale.

According to Cranston, also an executive producer on the series, Showtime decided to renew Your Honor for a second season because of season 1’s exceptionally high ratings. But he was only willing to return if season 2 truly delved into his character’s grief after his son died in the season 1 finale.

“If this really happened and you lost a child, it changes your life forever,” Cranston said on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast ahead of the season 2 premiere in 2022. “So, if you really want to show a man in abject despair, if there is any possibility of a life beyond that, let’s do it. But it has to be incrementally discovered.”

He had made that announcement in 2022 before the season premiered, confirming that Your Honor season 2 would be the final season. And who would have thought it would get a second season, as it was never intended to have another one after the first; thus, it was not a surprise when they did not announce a third season for renewal.

2. Your Honor Season 2’s TV ratings were worse than Season 1

Another reason Your Honor did not have a season 3 is that ratings in season 2 did not match up to the first one. Your Honor season 1 had an average of around 590,500 viewers per episode each week (0.081 Nielsen rating), but season 2 only had an average of 510,000 weekly viewers (0.049 Nielsen rating) (via Showbuzz Daily).

Considering there was not supposed to be a season 2 in the first place, it was not likely Showtime would bring back Your Honor for yet another season, no matter how well season 2 did.

Therefore, for that particular reason, when the ratings did drop in season 2, it just reaffirmed that the right decision had been made in not ordering a third season.

If the ratings for season 2 had been as good or even better than season 1, then perhaps Showtime would have attempted to renew for another season. However, this is still a very long shot, considering it was presented as a limited series in the first place.

3. What did Bryan Cranston say about Your Honor Season 3?

A month after the season 2 finale of Your Honor aired in March 2023, Cranston clarified his original statements to Armchair Expert the year before, in which he seems to have ruled out a third season.

“There is some discussion, ” he told Deadline. “Showtime has indicated there is interest.” What he meant was that he was unsure if there feasibly “could be” or, rather, should be another season of Your Honor because of how the story ended. “If it happens, fantastic,” he noted, “but it’d have to be some great reason to keep expanding in this world.”

Considering the destiny of Cranston’s Your Honor character in the season 2 finale, the actor didn’t see himself reprising his role either way.

“I don’t know about being in it because my guy’s back in prison,” Cranston explained. While he wasn’t too sure about the possibility of returning to play Michael Desiato on screen, Cranston was still interested in producing Your Honor season 3 if it ever came to fruition.

Of course, that day never came, but Cranston seems more content with the series being over for good.

4. About Your Honor

Your Honor is an American drama television series starring Bryan Cranston, adapted from the Israeli TV series Kvodo. It premiered on Showtime on December 6, 2020, and ended on March 19, 2023.

While ordered as a miniseries, in August 2021, the series was renewed for a second season that premiered on January 15, 2023. In July 2022, it was reported that the second season would be its last.

The series follows the son of a prominent New Orleans judge who accidentally kills another teenager in a hit-and-run collision. The judge urges him to turn himself in to the police but changes his mind when he learns that the victim was the son of a local mafia kingpin. The judge’s attempts to dispose of the evidence have tragic consequences.