''The Big Leap'' is an American musical comedy-drama television series created by Liz Heldens, based on the British reality miniseries ''

Big Ballet ''Big Ballet'' is a 2014 British documentary program that follows Wayne Sleep and prima ballerina Monica Loughman as they help a troupe of amateur plus-size dancers realize their dream of dancing Swan Lake. The three-episode series, produced ...

'', which aired on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

during the 2021–22 television season. In March 2022, the series was canceled after one season.

Premise

''The Big Leap'' is a drama which revolved around a group of diverse, down-on-their-luck characters attempting to change their lives by participating in a potentially life-ruining reality dance show competition.

Cast

Main

* Scott Foley as Nick Blackburn * Simone Recasner as Gabby Lewis *

Ser'Darius Blain Ser'Darius William Blain (born March 10, 1987) is a Haitian-American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Anthony “Fridge” Johnson in the ''Jumanji'' film series, appearing in the third and fourth entries. Blain is al ...

as Reggie Sadler *

Jon Rudnitsky Jon Rudnitsky (born November 22, 1989) is an American actor and comedian who was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' for the 2015–2016 season and played McWatt in the 2019 miniseries '' Catch-22''. Early life Rudnitsky is a native of Ha ...

as Mike Devries * Raymond Cham Jr. as Justin Reyes *

Mallory Jansen Mallory Jansen (born 18 June 1988) is an Australian actress. She co-starred as Madalena in the ABC series ''Galavant''. Following the cancellation of ''Galavant'', she joined the cast of '' Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' as "Aida", Agnes Ki ...

as Monica Suillvan *

Kevin Daniels Kevin Dwight Daniels Jr. (born December 9, 1976 in San Diego, California), is an American actor who started his career with a supporting role in the 1998 film ''Twelfth Night, or What You Will'' by director Nicholas Hytner. He has appeared i ...

as Wayne Fontaine * Anna Grace Barlow as Brittney Lovewell * Adam Kaplan as Simon Lovewell *

Piper Perabo Piper Lisa Perabo () (born October 31, 1976) is an American actress. Following her breakthrough in the comedy-drama film '' Coyote Ugly'' (2000), she starred in ''The Prestige'' (2006), ''Angel Has Fallen'' (2019), and as CIA agent Annie Walke ...

as Paula Clark *

Teri Polo Theresa Elizabeth Polo (born June 1, 1969) is an American actress. She starred as Pam Byrnes-Focker in the ''Meet the Parents'' trilogy and played the role of police officer Stef Adams Foster in the Freeform series '' The Fosters'' (2013–201 ...

as Julia Perkins

Recurring

* Tom Lennon as Zach Peterman *

Robert Wisdom Robert Ray Wisdom (born September 14, 1953) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Howard "Bunny" Colvin in '' The Wire,'' Norman "Lechero" St. John in ''Prison Break'', and Harold Conway in the 2021 Hulu movie ''Vacation Friends''. ...

as Earl Reyes * Fabrice Calmels as Claude *

Brett Tucker Brett Alan Tucker (born 21 May 1972) is an Australian actor and singer. He was a series regular in '' The Saddle Club'', ''McLeod's Daughters'', and '' Mistresses''. He is also known for his role as Daniel Fitzgerald in ''Neighbours''. He pla ...

as Linus * Rachel A. Kim as Miriam

Episodes

Production

Development

On January 28, 2020,

gave the project a pilot order, the first for the network's 2020–21 television season, with

Fox Entertainment Fox Entertainment is an American production company owned by Fox Corporation. The company was formed in 2019 after The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The programming is created for the Fox Broadcasting Company, MyNetwork ...

and

20th Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Comp ...

set as co-production partners and was written by Liz Heldens. The series ultimately skipped the step to the 2021–22 television season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, with Fox giving a series greenlight on April 28, 2021. Heldens was set as showrunner with

Jason Winer Jason Winer (born December 7, 1972) is an American director, producer, writer, actor, and comedian. He is best known for directing the pilot and 22 additional episodes of the American sitcom ''Modern Family''. Early life Winer was born and raise ...

announced as director and executive producer of the pilot. On May 17, 2021, during Fox's Upfront presentation, it was confirmed that the series was scheduled to premiere as a fall season entry during the 2021–22 television season.

Casting

In February 2020,

Matt Lucas Matthew Richard Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series ''Little Britain'' (2003–2006, 2020) and '' Come Fl ...

and Raymond Cham Jr. were cast in main roles for the pilot. In March 2020, Scott Foley was cast in the main role for this pilot including Simone Recasner and Jon Rudnitsky also joined the cast. On July 17, 2020, it was announced that

Laura Benanti Laura Ilene Benanti (née Vidnovic; born July 13, 1979) is an American actress and singer. Over the course of her Broadway career, she has received five Tony Award nominations. She played Louise in the 2008 Broadway revival of '' Gypsy'', winni ...

has been cast in the pilot. However, both Lucas and Benanti later exited the project. In December 2020,

was cast to replace Benanti in the lead role, with

and

joining the series in a main role. After the series was picked up in May 2021, Anna Grace Barlow joined the series. In July 2021, Adam Kaplan, Tom Lennon, and

joined the cast in recurring roles. In October 2021,

joined the cast in a recurring role.

Filming

Production of the pilot episode commenced on December 2, 2020. On December 18, 2020, production was temporarily suspended due to positive

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

test results, from the crew members. The pilot was filmed in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, and at the ''Rialto Theatre'' in downtown Joliet.

Release

The series premiered on

on September 20, 2021 and concluded on December 6, 2021. In Canada, the series airs on

CTV2 CTV 2 is a Canadian English-language television system owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. The system consists of four terrestrial owned-and-operated television stations (O&Os) in Ontario, one in British Columbia and two regional cab ...

. The series premiered on

Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

via the streaming hub Star as an

original series Original programming (also called originals or original programs, and subcategorized as "original series", "original movies", "original documentaries" and "original specials") is a term used for in-house television, film or web series productions ...

in selected countries. In Latin America, the series premiered as a

Star+ A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

original. On March 4, 2022, multiple media outlets reported that Fox had canceled ''The Big Leap'' after a single season; despite critical acclaim, it had been the network's lowest rated series in the 2021–22 season. Due to unknown reasons, the show was removed from all Disney streaming platforms on October 3, 2022, alongside other original Star shows.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 8.50/10, based on 16 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus states, "''The Big Leap''s joyous celebration of life and love isn't remotely subtle, but with moves like this and charm to spare, why play coy?" On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ratings

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Leap 2021 American television series debuts 2021 American television series endings 2020s American musical comedy television series 2020s American comedy-drama television series American television series based on British television series Dance television shows Fox Broadcasting Company original programming English-language television shows Television productions postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Television series about television Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series by Fox Entertainment Television shows filmed in Illinois Television shows set in Illinois