''Connecting...'' is an American television

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

co-created and co-executive produced by

Martin Gero Martin Gero (born July 6, 1977, in Geneva, Switzerland) is a Canadian screenwriter and co- executive producer for ''Stargate Atlantis'' and the creator of '' Blindspot''. Born in Switzerland, Gero spent much of his childhood in Ottawa, Ontari ...

and Brendan Gall for

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a division of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#Universal Studio Group, Universal Studio Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which, in turn, is ...

. The series aired from October 8 to October 29, 2020 on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. In November 2020, the series was canceled after four episodes. The remaining episodes were released on NBC.com and

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...

shortly after.

Premise

Set against the backdrop of the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...

, the series follows the lives of a group of friends who try to stay connected via

videotelephony Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...

as they navigate through the various nuances of life in a

lockdown A lockdown () is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison protocol that us ...

Cast

Main

Otmara Marrero Otmara Marrero (born March 1, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for the NBC series '' Connecting...'', 2019's ''Clementine'', and Crackle's 2016 series ''StartUp''. Early life Marrero was born in Miami, Florida, to a Cuban American fa ...

as Annie *

Parvesh Cheena Parvesh Singh Cheena is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Gupta in the TV series ''Outsourced'' and as Sunil Odhav on ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend''. He also voices Bodhi in '' T.O.T.S.'' and Blades in '' Transformers: Rescue Bots'' ...

as Pradeep *

Keith Powell Keith Powell (born August 12, 1979) is an American television actor, writer, director, and web series creator, known for his role as James "Toofer" Spurlock on ''30 Rock'', and for creating and starring in the web series ''Keith Broke His Leg'', ...

as Garrett *Jill Knox as Michelle *

Shakina Nayfack Shakina Nayfack (born December 8, 1980) is an American actress and transgender activist. She is most notable for her series regular role as Lola, a "trans-truther", on the second and third seasons of the Hulu television program '' Difficult People ...

as Ellis *

Ely Henry Ely Henry is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He is best known for his roles in ''Smallfoot'' and ''Some Freaks''. Career Henry worked on the television series ''Roadies (TV series), Roadies'', created by Cameron Crowe. After working as ...

as Rufus * Preacher Lawson as Ben

Recurring

* Cassie Beck as Jazmin *

Loretta Devine Loretta Devine (born August 21, 1949) is an American actress. She is known for numerous roles across stage and screen. Her most high profile roles include Lorrell Robinson in the original Broadway production of ''Dreamgirls'' (1981), Gloria Mat ...

as Dayleen *

Alex Landi Alex Landi (born September 28, 1992) is an American actor and model of Korean-Italian descent, best known for his role as Dr. Nico Kim on ABC's ''Grey's Anatomy'' and '' Station 19''. Early life and education Landi was born in New York City. His ...

as Cameron

Guest

Constance Marie Constance Marie Lopez is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Angelina "Angie" Lopez in '' George Lopez'' (2002–2007), and Marcela Quintanilla (mother of Selena) in the film ''Selena'' (1997). She portrayed Regina Vasquez i ...

as Martha *

Tony Plana José Antonio Plana (born April 19, 1952) is a Cuban-American actor and director. He is known for playing Betty Suarez's father, Ignacio Suarez, on the ABC television show ''Ugly Betty'' and for voicing Manuel "Manny" Calavera in the video ga ...

as Ramona *

Carl Tart Carl Tart (born January 5, 1989) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. Tart is known for being a featured player on the 2016 Fox sketch show '' Party Over Here'', a writer on ''Mad TV'' (the short-lived 2016 revival on The CW, not the FOX ...

as Wendell *Jaime Cepero as Kirby *

D'Lo D'LO is a transgender Sri Lankan-American performer, writer, and community activist, who performs in America, Canada, the UK, Germany, Sri Lanka, and India. He starred in a golf commercial held for Connor Smiths luxury hotel The Shlanger. He is ...

as Zach

Episodes

Production

On June 26, 2020, it received a straight-to-series order of 8 episodes by NBC. The first star to be cast in the series was Otmara Marrero on July 22, 2020, followed by

on July 31, 2020. The following month,

, Jill Knox,

and Preacher Lawson joined the main cast. Shakina Nayfack's casting made her the first transgender person to have a starring role on a major network comedy production. On November 2, 2020, NBC canceled the series, amid dwindling viewership, after airing only four episodes and pulled it from the network's schedule, with reruns of '' Superstore'' taking its place. The remaining episodes were streamed exclusively on NBC.com and

Release

On September 10, 2020, NBC released the first official trailer for the series. On August 27, 2020, it was announced that the series would be replacing ''

Brooklyn Nine-Nine ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' is an American police procedural sitcom television series that aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox, and later on NBC, from September 17, 2013, to September 16, 2021, for eight seasons and 153 episodes. Created by Dan G ...

'' in NBC's previously announced Fall schedule and would premiere on October 1, 2020. On September 24, 2020, the series premiere was pushed by one week to October 8, 2020.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 67% with an average rating of 6.33/10, based on 9 reviews. On

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

, it has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ratings

Overall

Season 1

References

External links

* * {{Peacock (streaming service) 2020 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings American English-language television shows Peacock (streaming service) original programming Television series by Universal Television Television shows about the COVID-19 pandemic Television shows set in Los Angeles NBC sitcoms 2020s American single-camera sitcoms