Eric Stonestreet’s Feelings Are ‘Hurt’ After Potential ‘Modern Family’ Spinoff Gets Axed

Eric Stonestreet admitted that his dream of a Modern Family spinoff with his beloved character, Cameron Tucker, was shattered by ABC.

The Hollywood funnyman appeared on In Depth With Graham Bensinger on September 18 to dish on why the potential spinoff with him and costar Jesse Tyler Ferguson got canned.

“I don’t think it’s potential anymore,” he said of the project’s future. “They had their chance. [Series cocreator] Chris Lloyd and a couple of the writers wrote a really great script that spun Jesse and I off in our life in Missouri, and they said, ‘No.’ They just said, ‘We don’t want to do it.’”

In the April 2020 series finale of Modern Family, Eric, 53, and Jesse’s characters, Cam and Mitch, moved to Missouri with their daughter, Lily, and son, Rex, so that Cam could coach college football. The spinoff would have been a continuation of the couple’s story in Missouri.

“I think it hurt Jesse and I’s feelings,” Eric admitted of the spinoff getting slashed. “I think it hurt Chris Lloyd’s feelings.”

“I love my character. I love the show. I love Jesse,” he added. “We had a great working relationship, we had amazing chemistry … I would have kept going. I think everyone would have kept going a year away from being done with the show.”

“I think Jesse and I maybe felt like they thought of us as the old guys, or something like that, that didn’t seem worthy of keeping those characters going,” Eric continued. “It felt a little hurtful. But people make business decisions. We can’t get involved in that.”

The Emmy winner believes that if the spinoff had gotten the greenlight, it would have been well-received by fans of the original series.

“I think it would have been a slam dunk,” he admitted. “I don’t think it would have not been successful. Because you had one of the creators — who had really taken such great care of making sure that show was great for so long — willing to do it.”

“We had a great thing … We had the right people in place. It would have been great. If ABC would have said ‘Let’s do it,’ I think we’d be on right now,” Eric said.

He also hinted that there have been talks about doing a Modern Family holiday special in the future.

“I don’t know how it works anymore, because it’s been so long,” Eric shared. “I wish we’d do a Christmas special.”

“There’s been talk of that, like a couple of writers have had that idea. … That would be fun,” he teased.

Currently, he is working on a new show called Home Team at Prime Video, in which he will star and executive produce. He will portray the character Scott Hansen, who “moves his father into a retirement community, begins to get his life back on track in a new workplace and starts to learn how to finally live in the moment from folks who have a lot fewer moments left.”