Despite being renewed for a second season, Pete Davidson’s Bupkis will not be returning to Peacock. The show was Davidson’s latest semi-autobiographical project (following the similarly themed King Of Staten Island movie), produced by his Saturday Night Live boss and mentor Lorne Michaels. Davidson perhaps has grown weary of playing fictionalized versions of himself, because it seems he was the one to pull the plug on the series.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Davidson’s agent emailed Peacock earlier this week but declined to tell Broadway Video,” but Broadway Video and Universal TV went along with the decision. Shooting was scheduled to begin this summer. In a statement, Davidson said, “I’ve always seen Bupkis as a window into my life, since it is so personal and about my struggles and family. After nearly a decade of my personal life being in the media I wanted a chance to tell my story my way. Of all the work I’ve ever done, Bupkis is by far what I’m most proud of. I am so grateful to Lorne Michaels and Broadway Video, Peacock, Universal Television and the amazing cast and writers for helping me create something honest, funny and heartfelt. I do also feel that this part of my life is finished. I’m very excited for this next chapter and for you guys to see the work. Thank you to all who support me for I am forever grateful.”
Bupkis, which also starred Edie Falco, Joe Pesci, and Davidson’s then-girlfriend Chase Sui Wonders, was a dark comedy about the actor’s chaotic life in the spotlight. It skewered the outsized attention on his personal life as well as his struggle with substance abuse. In one episode, he attends rehab alongside real-life friends Machine Gun Kelly and Paul Walter Hauser; the season culminates with an exhausted Davidson getting in a car crash on his way to his sister’s graduation.
Unfortunately, the real-life issues Davidson was fictionalizing onscreen continued to extend into real life after the first season aired. In June 2023, he was charged with reckless driving after crashing into a fire hydrant in Beverly Hills while Wonders was in the passenger seat. He reportedly checked himself into rehab shortly after for issues relating to PTSD and his diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. (Wonders and Davidson have since broken up.)
Although Bupkis is coming to an end, Davidson is likely to continue to mine his own life for material—he’s a standup comedian, after all. But only a handful of comedians’ rowdy tales of bad behavior have become headlines in their own right (“Pete Davidson says he was high at Aretha Franklin’s funeral”) the way Davidson’s has. It’s only fair if Davidson wants a break from putting a magnifying glass on all his public misbehavior. As an actor, he’s recently been pursuing roles that are—if not playing against type—at least not guys who are literally “Pete Davidson.” He was recently seen in Dumb Money and is currently in production for the Eddie Murphy-led heist comedy The Pickup.