From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv
'Jury Duty' Renewed for Season 3 at Prime Video
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Ronald Gladden and Anthony Norman may soon have some company.
The two unwitting stars of Prime Video's "Jury Duty" franchise
will now get to watch while someone else experiences what they
went through, as the streamer has ordered a third season of
the ambitious docu-hoax comedy.
"Jury Duty" centers on a civilian mark who has no idea they're
on a TV show, while everyone around them is an improv comedian.
In Season 2, "Jury Duty Presents Company Retreat," Anthony
Norman was hired as a temp to assist at a corporate retreat for
family-owned hot sauce company Rockin' Grandma's. He was told
that a documentary crew was following the business to document
the leadership transition from owner Doug to his slacker son,
Dougie Jr.
What he didn't realize was that Doug, Dougie Jr., and all of
the other employees were 24/7 actors - playing along a loose
script and hitting benchmarks that Norman assumed was just
crazy real life moments. In the final episode, Norman somehow
stood up and saved Rockin' Grandma's from being sold - a
storyline that was concocted to see if he would rise to the
occasion. And he did, landing $150,000 as a thanks.
Norman has since become tight with Gladden, the original "Jury
Duty" mark who thought he had volunteered to serve on a jury,
which was sequestered as all hell broke loose. He similarly came
out unscathed, but with kudos from the cast.
Of course, planning and pulling off the "Jury Duty" conceit is a
massive undertaking - and needs time. "Jury Duty" premiered in
2023, ultimately winning a Peabody and landing Emmy noms
including comedy series and comedy supporting actor (for James
Marsden, who played himself as a fellow juror in the original
edition). "Company Retreat" just recently premiered in 2026.
"It took three years from the first one to this one, so there's
a long runway to get there," executive producer Chris Kula (who
also appeared on "Company Retreat") told Variety's TV Fest
audience last week. But he does have a good idea for the third
edition: "I'm thinking of maybe like a fake TV show, like going
to awards functions and some someone's duped into giving
heartfelt testimony for this thing that doesn't exist."
The show is created by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and
directed by Jake Szymanski.
At the Variety FYC panel, Kula recounted the difficulty of
pulling off the show: "Every single day on set was kind of
terrifying, because you had the fear this is the day it could
all end," he said. "Somebody could misspeak, a camera could be
seen. Some element could unravel all the work we've done. So
when we got to the final day of the big finale - where it all
comes to a head and our hero steps up and saves the company -
I woke up three hours before the call time that day, because I was
just adrenalized. It was a high wire act, and we knew there was no
second take. It was unlike anything I've ever done before, and I'm
sure ever will."
Kula lauded Norman - and the show's casting execs - for coming up
with "an amazing gem of a human. We scripted the season with the
hope that the hero would meet this ideal... He came in with an Aaron
Sorkin-esque monologue, and when he starts appealing to the CEO,
and he says, 'father to father, I need to talk to you,' I got
goosebumps. My jaw dropped. He was just an absolute hero."
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https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/jury-duty-renewed-season-3-prime-video-1236744969/>
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