With Party Down about to kick off its highly-anticipated revival on Starz, Adam Scott has opened up about the show’s 2010 cancellation, which took place not long before the actor made his Parks and Recreation debut as former child mayor Ben Wyatt. The character would quickly become a fan-favorite and a love interest for Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope, but the career move inevitably led to speculation that Scott taking the job led to the demise of Party Down.
However, Scott recently revealed that Party Down‘s future wasn’t looking great thanks to a new president at Starz. “We weren’t sure what he wanted to do with it,” Scott said before sharing how he made the decision to take the Parks and Rec offer without screwing over Party Down. Via Rolling Stone:
I made a backchannel call to someone high up at Starz and asked him as a favor, “Will you let me know if I take another job, am I killing Party Down or is Party Down already dead?” And he said, “I can’t really officially tell you anything, but if I were a friend of yours, I would tell you to take that job.” And I had to make a decision or the Parks job was going to go away, and they weren’t going to announce Party Down till a month later. This person did me a huge favor and told me, “If you want to be employed, you should take that job.”
So there you have it. Scott got the inside scoop that Party Down was pretty much doomed, and he’d be out of work if he didn’t make the jump to Parks and Recreation. Mystery solved, and it all worked out in the end. TV fans got to watch Leslie and Ben’s love blossom, and Party Down already has a new season in the can. Everybody wins. Even Jerry.
Party Down Season 3 premieres February 24 on Starz.
(Via Rolling Stone)