‘The Comeback’s Lisa Kudrow Shuts Down Season 4 Chances: ‘It’s a Trilogy’

The Comeback isn’t interested in another comeback after Season 3. Lisa Kudrow and series co-creator Michael Patrick King shot down the possibility of reviving Valerie Cherish for a fourth season during a press conference for The Comeback Season 3 on Thursday, March 19, hosted by HBO.

The Comeback Season 3 was announced as the third and final season in 2025. The season premieres on Sunday, March 22. The Comeback Season 2 finale is widely considered to be a perfect ending for the series, which didn’t seem likely to get a second season in the first place. Season 1 came out in June 2005, and then the series was canceled. Just like its main character, the comedy made an unlikely return with Season 2 in November 2014. Now, it’s been 12 years since that “perfect” ending, and Valerie’s returning to our screens because of AI.

Reality TV was viewed as a massive threat to scripted programming in the early 2000s, which served as the original inspiration for Season 1 of The Comeback, in which Valerie stars in both a scripted and reality TV show. Kudrow and King were asked if it’s possible they could make The Comeback Season 4 another decade from now, given that Season 2 wasn’t likely, nor was Season 3.

“But it’s a trilogy,” Kudrow told journalists.

“We’re not doing a quad-roly,” added King.

When asked if that was an absolute no, Kudrow was first to say, “Yeah,” and King followed with the same answer.

“It took us 11 years for the key to show up, so come on,” King added. “Lisa did make a joke earlier at some point. She said, ‘Sure, Valerie will be digital. She will come back all you want.'”

Erin Simkin/HBO

In The Comeback Season 3, Valerie stars in the first multi-cam sitcom written by AI. The idea for the season was in direct response to real-life fears about AI taking over jobs in Hollywood, and the new episodes are set during the 2023 Hollywood strikes.

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“Just as reality TV was almost the extinction event for scripted television, it’s the same feeling about AI,” Kudrow told journalists in the Thursday press conference, which took place in-person in Los Angeles and virtually.

“It goes a little bit more than just about Hollywood,” King added. “We felt that the world may have escalated to the point of desperation that Valerie was in in the first season. Not because of AI, but because of where the world is, and people [are] desperate to get a job and keep a job, and as you age, you have to think about, ‘How am I coming across? Can I get hired?’ And a lot of the characters in this season are clinging and still reaching for job identity and recognition, all of them, really.”

Kudrow and King were happy to keep Season 2’s ending as the series finale, but then AI became a thing, and they were inspired to create Valerie’s reaction to that phenomenon.

“[The Season 2 finale] was such perfection that it really had to be an idea like the AI thing, the ultimate battle for Valerie,” Kudrow explained. But how they were going to shoot this new season was a big question mark, because reality TV no longer has the same foothold on pop culture as it did when the show was first made.

“We’ve already established that she can leave the cameras [in Season 2],” Kudrow said, “and now more than ever, everyone is curating their own reality show on social media. Cameras are in our homes, so the same setup that reality producers would’ve put up in your bedroom and kitchen, we’re putting ourselves for surveillance.”

Casey Bloys, HBO chief, greenlit The Comeback Season 3 quickly, and they felt panicked to get the show made as soon as possible, before real-life stories about potential AI usage in Hollywood could beat them to the punch.

“When we said to Casey, ‘Here’s the idea,’ he said, ‘Yes. Now,'” King said with a laugh. “It was very much as fast as you can, and all through the writing process, every time something would peek its head up about something touching AI, we would panic, like, ‘Are we going to get there?'”

Kudrow feared they’d “be old news” by the time the season came out.

“Our goal was to get on the air before a studio admitted that they were using AI,” King noted.

Hopefully, nothing like that is revealed in these, the final days before The Comeback comes back.

The Comeback, Season 3 Premiere, Sunday, March 22, 10:30/9:30c, HBO, Streaming on HBO Max