TV Guide Magazine was finishing up a photo shoot and interview with
Regina King to promote
Southland's new season, when she received word from her publicist that NBC had cancelled her critically acclaimed show just days before its second season was to have premiered on October 23.
After guiding a tour of her childhood haunts in L.A.'s real Southland, King sat down over lunch and voiced her deep concerns over NBC's failure to promote the show. Then, just after she said goodbye to go pick up her 11-year-old son from school, the actress' Prius broke down. While waiting in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant for AAA, she got the call about NBC's shocking decision.
King was extremely proud of the work she and her
Southland co-stars have done on six unaired episodes. "The first episode is so freakin' good!," she said about the second season premiere, which was to have featured a guest spot from former San Diego Chargers/Oakland Raiders football star Sam Scarber as a menacing character. "I was so drawn into it, like I forgot I was watching a show I was on. It's that good."
King said her character, Det. Lydia Adams, would get a new partner named Ray Suarez, played by film actor Clifton Collins Jr. ("Traffic"), and hinted that Lydia was headed for a steamy romance with another cop—perhaps Ben McKenzie's Officer Ben Sherman. "You're not going to expect who Lydia ends up with," teased King. "The writers are finding moments where the line between a detective and a police officer cross." Too bad viewers may never get to see what develops.