Why FX canceled Dave after 3 seasons

Lil Dicky is truly an artist of the internet age. The rapper made a name for himself with hilariously clever videos for songs like “$ave Dat Money,” not to mention his incredible freestyle performances. The rapper, whose real name is Dave Byrd, also proved himself to be a pretty great storyteller on his FXX comedy series aptly titled “Dave.” The show premiered in 2020 and featured a fictionalized version of the artist known as Lil Dicky, loosely inspired by his real life. It became an instant favorite with critics and fans alike.

Unfortunately, the series met a somewhat unceremonious death as cross-country tour that was Season 3 of “Dave.” turned out to be the show's last — at least for now. In February 2024, FX confirmed that a fourth season was not planned. The announcement came a full nine months after the show's Season 3 finale. Speaking of which, why? In a statement at the time (via The Hollywood Reporter), an FX spokesperson said:

“After some back and forth, there are currently no plans for a fourth season of 'Dave' as Dave Byrd has decided to take an extended hiatus to focus on music and other endeavors. This does not rule out the possibility of doing so. We love the show and truly appreciate the creative excellence Dave, Jeff Schaeffer , the cast and crew provided in every episode to continue as he develops future projects for us through his overall production deal with FXP.

Quite significantly, the FX brass aren't ruling out something in the future. The show is not canceled in the traditional sense. “Justified” ended after six seasons in 2015 only to be revived eight years later as “Justified: City Primeval” who knows what the future holds. However, Baird has now moved on to other events.

Byrd's desire to do more with his music and other creative endeavors is seemingly the only reason “Dave” season 4 isn't happening. All of this was confirmed personally by Baird, who made the following statement when it was announced that the show would not be returning for a fourth season:

“Creating Dave has been and continues to be a dream come true. But there are other creative endeavors that I'm looking to pursue. I've poured my heart and soul into the show for the past five years, and after three amazing seasons, this feels like the right time to hit pause to give myself enough bandwidth to do some other things that I've always wanted to do in the future and I'm very grateful to FX for their continued cooperation.”

“Dave” season 3 focused on the concept of fame and what it does to a person. No doubt if time wasn't an issue, Burd and FX could have come up with plenty of ideas for at least one more season of the show. Creatively speaking, the series definitely didn't add up in Season 3. But Little Dickey has a lot of followers. For example, creating a new album and touring an album takes a lot of time. That doesn't leave much room to make a season of television either, especially when the artist in question is the show's main star, executive producer, and writer.

It's no different than how Saturday Night Live guest host extraordinaire Justin Timberlake having to balance a music career with acting. He still makes music, but also finds time to act in movies like Trolls and The Reptile. Sure, it's a champagne problem, but time is a finite resource. Hopefully after Byrd turns his attention to some of these other ventures, the door will open again for a return to “Dave” or perhaps something else.

“Dave” is now streaming on Hulu. You can also purchase the soundtrack for the series via Amazon.