The Comeback Season 3 Premieres to Strong Reviews

The third and final season of HBO's "The Comeback," starring Lisa Kudrow as aspiring actress Valerie Cherish, premiered on March 22, 2026, earning strong critical acclaim for its sharp satire on the evolving television industry, particularly the rise of artificial intelligence. The eight-episode run, airing weekly on Sundays at 10:30 p.m. ET on HBO and available to stream on Max, marks the end of a series that debuted nearly two decades earlier.

Created by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, who also directed all episodes this season, "The Comeback" follows Cherish, a veteran sitcom star from the 2000s show "Room and Board," as she navigates career setbacks and reinventions. The first season aired in 2005, chronicling her participation in a reality series documenting her return to a new sitcom amid the early boom of unscripted TV. It averaged under a million viewers and was canceled after 13 episodes, despite three Emmy nominations, including one for Kudrow in Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. HBO cited scheduling constraints at the time.

The series returned in 2014 for a limited second season of eight episodes, shifting to Cherish's involvement in a prestige HBO drama...