• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, July 1, 2025

In what might be the most drawn-out run of a TV show in history, “The Comeback” is coming back next year for only its third season in 21 years.

The HBO comedy series starring Lisa Kudrow as an aging sitcom actress making a comeback first appeared on June 5, 2005. 

That first season ended the following September after 13 episodes. It was then cancelled due to lackluster ratings, but somehow it was revived.

Nine years later, in 2014, an eight-episode second season aired from November to December, during which it drew some of the smallest audiences in the history of HBO.

At one point in that eight-week run, it was reportedly the lowest-rated scripted TV series in all of cable.

But now, 20 years after its 2005 debut, HBO announced last Friday that Season Three is in production this summer, and will likely premiere next year.

HBO did not provide the number of episodes, but the new season is positioned as the series finale. 

In the show, Kudrow plays Valerie Cherish, the beloved star of a fictional network sitcom -- “I’m It!,” which ran on an unspecified network from 1989 to 1994. She then struggled for work.

When “The Comeback” opened in 2005, the aging Valerie had been recently cast in a fictional sitcom called “Room and Bored” to play the thankless role of “Aunt Sassy,” whose job on the show was to issue snappy, sassy one-liners.

At the same time, Valerie agreed to star in a reality series about her life titled “The Comeback.”

Thus, the filming of the fictional reality series chronicled her experience behind the scenes at the fictional sitcom, which featured a loutish lead actor who didn’t give her the time of day.

When “The Comeback” premiered in 2005, Kudrow was 41. She was 51 at the time of Season Two. She is 61 now.

Whether or not the show’s first two seasons drew sustainable audiences, Kudrow’s performance was one for the ages, and one of the top two or three comedic performances that I have ever seen on television.

In her portrayal, Valerie is sweet, vulnerable, needy and pathetic. It is easy to fall in love with her, especially when she encounters setbacks at the hands of others.

“No matter what the industry throws at her, Valerie Cherish is a survivor,” said Amy Gravitt, executive vice president of HBO & Max comedy programming, in the HBO press release.

A prepared quote from co-creators Kudrow and executive producer Michael Patrick King hints that the streaming world opens opportunities for Valerie to stage yet another comeback.

The TV Blog’s guess is that she could be back for an updated version of “I’m It!” in which she plays the older version of her old character -- similar to the way Kelsey Grammer returned to play “Frasier” again in 2023 on Paramount+.

Renewed interest in the Valerie Cherish character might even stem from a revival of “I’m It!,” whose reruns have found new, appreciative audiences on streaming.

“Valerie Cherish has found her way back to the current television landscape,” say the two co-creators. “Neither of us are surprised she did.”