ABC Rejecting ‘Modern Family’ Spinoff Was Hurtful

“Modern Family” star Eric Stonestreet said during a video interview with Graham Bensinger (via Entertainment Weekly) that “it felt a little hurtful” when ABC rejected a planned sequel series that would’ve followed the lives of Cameron (Stonestreet), Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), and their daughter, Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons), as they move to Missouri for Cameron to live his dream as a college football coach. The spinoff had the backing of original “Modern Family” co-creator Chris Lloyd.

“I don’t think it’s potential anymore,” Stonestreet said of the axed sequel series. “They had their chance. Chris Lloyd and a couple of the writers wrote a really great script that spun Jesse and I off in our life in Missouri, and they said, ‘No.’ They just said, ‘We don’t want to do it.’”

“I love my character. I love the show. I love Jesse,” he continued. “We had a great working relationship, we had amazing chemistry. I think Jesse and I maybe felt like they thought of us as the old guys, or something like that, that didn’t seem worthy of keeping those characters going. It felt a little hurtful. But people make business decisions.”

Stonestreet played Cameron Tucker on all 11 seasons of “Modern Family,” which ran for 250 episodes on ABC from 2009 to 2020. The actor received three Emmy nominations during the show’s run for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series, winning twice.

“I think it would have been a slam dunk,” Stonestreet said of the scrapped Cameron-Mitch spinoff. “I don’t think it would have not been successful. Because you had one of the creators — who had really taken such great care of making sure that show was great for so long — willing to do it…We had the right people in place. It would have been great. If ABC would have said ‘Let’s do it,’ I think we’d be on right now.”

Stonestreet stressed that the door has closed on getting the spinoff made “because it’s been so long,” although he’s certainly open to reuniting with his “Modern Family” co-stars. He added, “I wish we’d do a Christmas special.”

Watch Stonestreet’s full interview with Graham Bensinger in the video below.