Nearly a year ago, Nicki Minaj announced she was turning her life into a TV scripted comedy show for Freeform, formerly the ABC Family channel. The show, titled Nicki, was based on the rapper’s childhood as a little Trinidadian girl growing up in Queens, New York, during the ’90s. The series, also executive produced by Minaj, went into production earlier this year and everything was seemingly going well. Nicki found the perfect kid to play her mini-me and often shared updates about the series on her Instagram. However, it’s been a minute since we’ve heard anything about the show. And the reason may be because they’re heading back to the drawing board.
Freeform President Tom Ascheim has put Nicki on hold while the network figures things out. They originally ordered a full series from the star, but is now being “redeveloped,” per a report from The Hollywood Reporter.
Other recent high-profile big swings haven’t advanced as quickly as Ascheim and his team would have liked. Ascheim went straight-to-series in September 2015 on Nicki Minaj’s semi-autobiographical comedy Nicki, which after shooting a pilot in January, is being redeveloped (and is no longer a series order).
Last month, Nicki revealed the show had been put on hold during an interview with The Breakfast Club. “A lot of things were happening at the same time, and creatively we wanted to make some changes with the pilot,” she said. “We’re taking our time—everyone involved wants it to be perfect and I felt like there were other things that needed to be figured out first.”
So, it basically sounds like they shot a few episodes, had a research group take look at a few, didn’t get a good reaction and are now starting over again. Hopefully, they find their footing. We can never have enough black, non-Tyler Perry related sitcoms. In the meantime, Nicki is focusing on her American Music Awards performance. The 33-year-old is scheduled to perform with Ariana Grande November 20th.
