General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Little Voice (2020 TV series)

Little Voice is an American musical drama television series created by Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson for Apple TV+, following aspiring singer-songwriter Bess King as she tries to build a career in the New York City music scene. It premiered on July 10, 2020, with its first three episodes, ran for one nine-episode season, and was canceled in August 2021.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Premise	Bess King, a uniquely talented performer, struggles to fulfill her dreams while handling rejection, dating drama, and complicated family issues³
Creators	Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson, who had collaborated on the Broadway musical Waitress⁴
Executive producers	J.J. Abrams, Sara Bareilles, Jessie Nelson, and Ben Stephenson; produced by Bad Robot Productions with Warner Bros. Television¹
Run	First three episodes July 10, 2020; new episodes weekly through August 21, 2020; nine episodes in one season¹^•⁵
Lead cast	Brittany O'Grady as Bess, with Sean Teale, Colton Ryan, Shalini Bathina, Kevin Valdez, Phillip Johnson Richardson, and Chuck Cooper⁶
Music	Original music by Sara Bareilles; about half the season's songs came from her stock of unplaced songs, some co-written with Jack Antonoff, Lori McKenna, and Justin Tranter⁷
Reception	77% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (30 reviews) and 83% from audiences; a Metascore of 60 on Metacritic³^•⁸
Fate	Canceled by Apple TV+ after one season, reported August 5, 2021²

Spoilers

Premise and characters

The series is described by Apple as "a love letter to the diverse musicality of New York" that follows the journey of finding an authentic voice in your early 20s.¹ Bess King (Brittany O'Grady) races between side jobs, including dog-walking and cocktail waitressing, while scrawling lyrics in a journal and trying to find the courage to perform her own material.⁷^•⁹ The cast includes Sean Teale as Ethan, Colton Ryan as Samuel, Shalini Bathina as Prisha, Kevin Valdez as Bess's brother Louie, Phillip Johnson Richardson as Benny, and Chuck Cooper.⁶

The show's New York setting carries much of its musical identity. Bess's roommate belongs to an all-female mariachi group, and her father sings layered harmonies with friends on subway platforms. Showrunner Jessie Nelson described walking the city with Bareilles and passing through "five different kinds of music from five different cultures" in half an hour, calling that the fabric of the city rather than something invented for the show.⁷

Origins

The project grew out of Bareilles's own early career. Its genesis dates to the mid-2000s, when she was preparing her major-label debut album, released in 2007.¹⁰ Bareilles and Nelson had previously worked together on the Tony-nominated Broadway musical Waitress, for which Bareilles wrote the music and lyrics and Nelson wrote the book; they wanted to create something new together after that show.⁴^•¹¹

Bareilles was explicit that Bess is not a thinly fictionalized version of herself. "We learned really early on that it was not helpful to the show to lock into this being my story," she told TVLine, quoting Nelson's instruction that the character had to have "its own soul and its own universe to inhabit," while conceding there is "lots of little anecdotal evidence of me in there."⁷ One creative problem the two addressed early was how to dramatize songwriting, an internal process; their solution was to show Bess's ideas emerging from the world and from her relationships rather than from solitary scribbling.⁷

Music

Bareilles composed the show's original music, and Bess's musical aesthetic essentially is hers.⁷ About half the songs featured in the series came from a pile of finished songs that had never found a home and fit the show naturally; others were co-written with frequent collaborators including Jack Antonoff, Lori McKenna, and Justin Tranter.⁷ O'Grady, who had sung on the Fox series Star but had never carried a show alone, described singing for Bareilles as intimidating at first.⁷

Production and release

The series was produced by J.J. Abrams's Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, with Nelson as showrunner writing and directing the first episode.¹ It was rated TV-MA.¹ The first three episodes premiered Friday, July 10, 2020, with new episodes debuting each Friday thereafter, exclusively on Apple TV+; the season ran through August 21, 2020.¹^•⁵ Episodes are roughly half-hour length, from 25 to 34 minutes.⁸ Directors for the season included Nelson, Christopher Storer, Cherien Dabis, Emma Westenberg, and Bart Freundlich.⁵

Reception

Critical response was mixed to positive. The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus called the show's earnest tune "a little too familiar" but credited a winsome cast led by Brittany O'Grady and catchy music from Sara Bareilles with making it "a breezy summer binge"; the season scored 77% on the Tomatometer and 83% with audiences.³ Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 60, labeled mixed or average, based on 18 critic reviews.⁸ Individual reviews ranged from an 80 from Variety, praising O'Grady's warmth and a singing voice reminiscent of Bareilles's, to a 2/5 from the Daily Telegraph.¹² British outlets were cooler: The Guardian's review said the show "hits a bum note," and The Independent singled out the songs as its key weakness.¹³^•¹⁴

Cancellation

Apple TV+ canceled the series after one season, with the news reported on August 5, 2021.² No specific reason for the cancellation was given in the announcement coverage.²

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026