United States of Al Series Finale Recap: How’d It End? Plus, Adhir Kalyan Opens Up About CBS Comedy’s Cancellation
United States of Al had already wrapped production on Season 2 by the time CBS pulled the plug on May 11, so it came as little surprise that Thursday’s finale offered nary an ounce of closure.
Earlier in the day, series star Adhir Kalyan broke his silence regarding Al‘s “incredibly disappointing” cancellation — but before we dive into what he said, let’s recap the series’ swan song:
At the start of the episode, Riley came clean to Freddy about his relationship with Vanessa. Freddy had already connected the dots, but chalked the affair up to unfinished business between exes. Now that he and Vanessa were engaged, he urged Riley to move on, but Riley couldn’t leave well enough alone. He insisted that Vanessa still loved him and Freddy shouldn’t marry her. This, in turn, earned the Marine a broken nose. As for Vanessa, she finally sent in her divorce papers… and broke up with Freddy. She later explained to Riley that she’s in no place to be with anyone right now.
Al, meanwhile, was down to just one girlfriend — and not the one we were hoping for. Cindy began stalking Al and confronted him while he was out to lunch with Ariana. This raised a giant red flag for Ariana, who refused to date Al as long as Cindy was in the picture. Eventually, Cindy showed up at the house and immediately took issue with Lizzie and Al living under one roof. She convinced herself that Riley’s sister was interested in Al, despite Lizzie’s assurance that she sees Al as a brother.
In the end, Al and Riley decided to get out of town for awhile. We last saw them en route to Las Vegas, unaware that crazy Cindy was close behind. The end. (Sigh.)
“When we received the news last week that we weren’t returning for another season, it perhaps goes without saying that it was incredibly disappointing,” Kalyan shared on Instagram. “But the past week has offered me the opportunity to reflect on what an extraordinary experience being a part of United States of Al has been.”
The actor thanked series creators Dave Goetsch and Maria Ferrari, executive producer Chuck Lorre, CBS and Warner Brothers for “the most rewarding and meaningful role of my career,” and signaled out the Afghan community — ” a beautiful people with a beautiful culture” — for their “kindness and support…. I want you to know that I tried my best to represent you by playing Al with integrity and respect,” he wrote. “Reflecting your culture with the utmost accuracy on screen was always of paramount importance to me.”
Kalyan’s statement also praised Afghan interpreters like Al, United States Marines like Riley and military families like the Dugans. “Thank you for your service, your bravery and your sacrifice,” he said. “As a nation so often divided, we would do well to learn from you and conduct ourselves with the pride and honor with which you do. I hope that you feel that we told the stories of your lives. If you did, then these 35 episodes have been a success.”
Fellow cast member Elizabeth Alderfer (Lizzie) also shared a statement on Instagram, which you can read here.
As previously reported, CBS will head into the 2022-23 broadcast season with just two Thursday-night sitcoms — Young Sheldon and Ghosts — having cancelled Al, fellow Lorre laffer B Positive and Pete Holmes’ How We Roll.
Will you miss United States of Al? Grade the finale via the following poll, then mourn the CBS sitcom in the comments below.
Loved this show, really wish it could find another home.
As a Disabled Veteran, it was really nice to watch something I could relate to…liberal tv executives wouldn’t know good tv unless it bit them in the ass
Try to find a way to Keep Al going. It’s a great show.
Agreed! Hulu or Amazon. Pleeeeeeease?!
This show needs to continue please find another home for it.
I can only hope they will find another home. I love Adhir Kalyan as all, he was the best of the cast. Maybe that was the problem, the other cast members were too weak. I liked the dad and the sister.
This was a great show but the arc with Cindy ruined it. Jayma Mays is great but the character was so annoying and unlikeable.
I didn’t like the Cindy arc either, but it could have been a lesson and Al realized that wasn’t what he wanted. He could have returned to his previous sense of right and wrong.
We really looked forward to the next episode, something that is rare in tv these days. Al has all the elements for a successful show!! We are disheartened at the cancellation and hope for a miracle that the show be picked up on another network or streaming. It’s very hard when you are invested in a show, then without notice the suits cancel without any thought to the show’s faithful audience.
EXACTLY, Jean!
Jean, I totally agree with what you’re saying.
Couldn’t say it better myself. They need to give it more time. They promoted the heck out of Ghosts – which kind of had to grow on me. Al deserves the same support. It was a wonderful show.
Exactly, guess the exes didn’t make enough off the commercials. They needed to give it at least one more season.
I totally agree. whatever happened to allowing a show to find its audience. I hope another station picks it up..
💯 Exactly!
I’m disappointed it was cancelled at the last minute. I was hoping for Riley to get back together with Vanessa.
Me too!
Me three!
VERY disappointed about the cancellation of US of Al, and B Positive! Enjoyed both shows very much.
Agree. Looked forward to Thursday nights
I was also very disappointed to see both shows get cancelled.
I will miss United States of Al. Really enjoyed this comedy.
I will really miss US of Al and B Positive. They were both filled with good actors and were funny and enjoyable shows. There aren’t enough of these shows around anymore. CBS did a big disservice to TV network viewers with their cancellations, and this definitely includes Magnum, this year.
US of Al has been a gem in every episode. It is both funny and real, offering realistic insights into the Afghani psyche as it contrasts with the American way of life. We need Al on TV. For balance aa well as for comic relief. Save him, somebody!
Two shows I make point to watch weekly are cancelled. This makes me no longer want to get attached to a TV show. These were good shows with great messages.
I totally agree! Yet, they keep stupid sitcoms like GHOST.
I think cbs executives should be ashamed of themselves for what they did to this show & b positive. Honestly throwing away two good comedies for all the drama you are putting on?
this is so true we will get NCIS season 20 and Blue Bloods season 13 but we won’t get B Positive or United States Of Al season 3 thanks CBS we love the sh**ty show you give us
CBS is the only broadcast station I have access to in real time. You hit the nail on the head. I think they have some wonderful comedies on Monday and Thursday. I love The Neighborhood, Bob ♥️ Abishola, and Ghosts. I also liked B Positive and the United States of Al.
NCIS has grown on me over the years but do we need 10 versions (seems like 10 )?
With all the focus on providing long overdue representation to minority culture, CBS has made the ridiculous decision to cancel a high quality show with a lead character representing a woefully misunderstood culture. And what are they replacing it with? Another show with whites in leading roles. It’s disappointing in the extreme and I would be thrilled to see this show land somewhere else.
The US population is 76.3% white. Most people of any ethnicity tend to watch shows about their own culture. Forced diversity is simply not going to draw enough viewers to make a show profitable. It’s business, period. No offense intended.
Yup, people don’t tend to understand CBS is not going to keep a show running if not enough people watching don’t blame CBS, blame others that didn’t like it and stopped watching or people who didn’t care to watch it.
True. Even OWN is having trouble pulling in enough viewers to keep some black lead shows. The ratings don’t justify the production costs. It isn’t economically feasible to renew them.
Yep, this is exactly why the Cosby Show was so unsucessful in the 80’s.
And why no one watched Family Matters or the Fresh Prince or the Jeffersons or Sanford and Son.
Yep. You. ARE. Right. Networks should only do shows about white people because the majority of the country is white. 🙄
You don’t understand. In the 80s there were just a few networks and 2 premium channels. and the shows you mentioned were a novelty. Nowadays viewers are spoiled for choice. and there are hundreds of options and the schedule is saturated with POC centric shows. It isn’t a question of only white shows, it’s a question of profit. TV is not a charity, it’s a business and you can’t guilt people into watching something they don’t like.
Perhaps one could take solace in the fact that although United States of Al was not a top draw in ratings/viewers it had respectable in both regards that ,just other business factors gone different,it could have been a renewal. It has and will be an example that actors and subject matter dealing with minority culture can work in a network setting. And it has brought actor Adhir Kaylan to the mainstream viewers’ attention.
The best thing about the show was it honored our veterans and foreign supporters. The worst thing was all the commercials. I always flipped channels to avoid so many commercials. And I’m a Nielson viewer, I probably hurt the ratings when I switched channels. But this was my favorite CBS show.
As a former Nielsen viewer, yes they note every time you change the channel. If you pause your DVR for ten minutes you can fast forward through the commercials and still count as watching live. I know when I was a household the shows I most cared about I watched live/same-day as much as I could. This show, like others on CBS had fewer breaks, but longer commercial sequences.
I really enjoyed this show and will miss it. I think that someone at CBS made a really dumb mistake canceling this show and a few of the others.
Agreed!
Nice message from Kalyan there. Add me to the list of those who are sad to see this show go. I want to know how Riley and Al’s trip to Vegas went!
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Rather sad ending in general, this episode – realistic, in regards to everything with Vanessa and Riley, but sad. I think Vanessa, as well as Riley and Freddy, could all do well to take some time for themselves to reflect on and focus on their own personal issues. And while I like Riley and Vanessa’s interactions, yeah, under these circumstances, it makes sense things wouldn’t work between them. I do feel bad for Hazel, though.
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The stuff with Al and Cindy took a strange turn this episode – as wild and out there as Cindy had been thus far, this possessive side didn’t really seem like her. Unless she hid it really well. I would’ve just preferred to end on Al and Riley traveling to Vegas, but I am curious as to how this stuff with Cindy would’ve resolved itself had there been a third season. I like to think Al would’ve focused on continuing to get to know Ariana better.
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Wish this show could still be on the air, but I am glad that we got the two seasons that we did, and that they were able to tell some important stories along the way. Here’s to hoping we can see the cast in some new projects as soon as possible!
Yeah, it was kind of out of now where to create season end drama. She was weird and quirky, but had also been shown to be basically a good person. I didn’t see a long term relationship there, but to flip her to a bad guy was pretty convenient too. I didn’t really see Ariana as the one either. It was her who was never really serious about Al, and seemed like a relationship doomed to be unbalanced. She’s probably better off with the instructor who makes her dad mad.
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If anything, “like a brother” aside, I always figured Lizzie was the (very) long term endgame if they had time. So he was truly part of the family. The most heartfelt talks were always between them. Lizzie’s professor boyfriend seemed to sense that when he first got together with her too. (And did anyone see that as long term?)
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But it’s all moot now. Of all the shows cancelled that I actually watched, this is the only one I’ll miss. Think they had something there if it had time to develop. Oh well.
It is completely irresponsible of CBS to end United States of Al the way they did. The season finale was great – as a SEASON FINALE. As a SERIES FINALE it is unfair to everyone who has watched and supported the show. This show has great potential and is getting better every episode. CBS and all the networks need to do better when deciding to cancel a show. When you cancel get your act together and make these decisions so a credible SERIES FINALE can be produced. CBS did this with Magnum P.I. as well, a show with good ratings. At least we were left with Magnum and Higgins appearing to get together, but cancelling was ridiculous as there is so much more to all the characters stories. I will only be watching Ghosts and Blue Bloods going forward and hope CBS has smarter executives making these cancellation decisions in the future. They owe it to viewers to be more considerate of them.
I liked the show, and wish it had been renewed, but I think they sort of shot themselves in the foot this season, with both of the previously likeable male leads gleefully cheating on their girlfriends. My hope now, find a good show for the incredible Elizabeth Alderfer. And for that matter, something for the great Briga Heelan, dumped from B-Positive after Season One.
I don’t know that it was a smart storyline, but who did Al cheat on? It was Al who wanted to be serious and his girl friend who didn’t want to be with one guy.
I wish they wouldn’t have canceled this show. Hopefully they can find another network to pick it up.
Great show with great characters. I hate that we’re losing another family show but maybe that’s the point!
Sniff sniff. I’m really going to miss this show.
Sad to see the show go on, especially on a somewhat non-conclusive note. I wish this and B-Positive (which I hadn’t seen since S1, but still rooted for) could go on, but I guess CBS executives have “better” shows in the pipeline.
Pls CBS with the BS reasons and how hard it was to cancel these shows even tho ratings are really good on Magnum and US of Al. Give me a break, there’s so many others that you could have cancelled instead of these. This decision maker should get fired.
Will miss this comedy
Will miss this program
Personally, I think CBS once again used the racial profiling card to drop an outstanding show. UNITED STATE OF AL was dropped for the lack of African Americans on the show. Look at PRICE IS RIGHT.
Those contestants are not all on the same level for choice of “who comes down.” The CBS show makes sure there are African Americans who “come on down”…and CBS controls what position in the contestants’ row the Blacks are placed.
So it is a shame that an excellent show like US of AL is cancelled by people of CBS with such racial
profiling. If you need shows that are to be cancelled, get rid of some of the FBI shows. So many , in form, in makeup are the same FBI
theme. They are so predictable. AL was more and more developing the complexities of people
experiencing their lives. Each show got better than the previous one. CBS should aire the “principles” they use to cancel a show. Yes, MAGNUM suffered too. Not enough African/AMericans. That is just plain “down-to-earth” prejudice, not good
intellectual evaluation of the TV theatre._
IMO you have it all wrong about why USAL was canceled. Scripted shows are very expensive to produce. If the ratings aren’t there advertisers pull out. It’s always about money, not politics, not racism, just profit.