Megan Ganz Not Returning for Season 17?

Two weeks into the writers room and, without The Always Sunny Podcast, we haven't heard much at all as to what they're chattering on about in there (aside from dick jokes, apparently), but one thing does now seem clear: Megan Ganz is not writing, if involved at all, on Season 17.

When Rob McElhenney first shared a photo of the writers room on social media, the Glenn Howerton portrait in hand seemed to indicate not everyone was present, however with some new information that seems to be strictly pertinent to Glenn. 

It's a smaller writers room this year, per Dave & John Chernin on the "We Might Be Drunk" Podcast. They stated there are two women out of the seven writers for 17 (plus Rob, Charlie, and Glenn), which confirms that the photo Rob shared encompasses the full team: 

From left to right, the writers for Season 17 (and prior writing credits) are: Keyonna Taylor (Lethal Weapon 7), Charlie Day (So many, dude, like hundreds of millions), Nina Pedrad (The Gang Replaces Dee with a Monkey, The Gang Inflates), Dave & John Chernin (The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore, Mac and Dennis Buy a Timeshare, The Gang Beats Boggs, etc.), Rob McElhenney & Glenn Howerton (See Charlie Day parenthetical), Ross Maloney (Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day), Javier Scott, and David Hornsby (Charlie Rules the World, The Gang Spies Like U.S., The Gang Gets Cursed, etc.)

This means Megan Ganz (The Gang Tends Bar, The Janitor Always Mops Twice, Frank Vs. Russia, etc.) is not a part of the writing team for Season 17. This seems further backed by her exchange with Keyonna Taylor on Instagram:

Megan Ganz has been involved with the writers room since Season 10, originally brought in by Marder & Rosell, became a Co-Executive Producer in Season 12, an Executive Producer in Season 13, and took on directing in Season 15. While she was originally thought to be an Executive Producer for this season, this week she (along with Scott Marder) was removed from the WGAW credits for Season 17:

The WGA site is generally pretty reputable, as only members of the Guild can edit it, but the deletion should still be taken with a grain of salt. There is a small possibility this was a mistake and credits can be updated at any moment, all the way until scripts are finalized (which won't be for months); considering how many projects these guys always have overlapping, anyone might be brought on later.

There's not necessarily a hard confirmation that Megan Ganz is entirely out of Season 17, but she will not be a writer this year. (UPDATE: Per Glenn Howerton, Meg will not be involved on Season 17 at all.) While not announced in any capacity, Rob's comments both on Instagram and Twitter were immediately flooded with questions about where Meg was, so it's both a wonder and expected that they avoided directly mentioning the fact that Meg won't be returning. As a fan favourite of the Sunny staff, especially since hosting The Always Sunny Podcast for the past few years and having written one of the most highly-praised episodes of Season 16, it will be tough news to break to the majority of fans who were expecting her return. 

I'm admittedly saddened by this. I think Meg has delivered some phenomenal episodes and understands the characters really well, and I feel her voice behind the scripts will be missed, but I'm mostly just hoping the decision to step back this season was on her side and amicable. Megan was recently spotted at a Wrexham game with Rob and commented on Reddit that she misses the Podcast with the hope that it will make a return eventually, and she has shared on Instagram she is working on a pilot. Given what we know, it seems likely that her absence from Season 17 has more to do with a career decision than anything personal. (I am still holding out a little hope that we'll see her involved this season. I would love to see her continue to direct an episode or two.) 

And I know I brushed over it kind of quickly, but Scott Marder's absence from this season, while also disappointing, is not nearly as surprising due to the fact that he hasn't written an episode since Season 11 and is continuing to spearhead Rick and Morty into its 8th Season. I'd love to see another Marder & Rosell script down the line (they are the creators of milk steak, after all), but I am incredibly geeked to see that the writing duo they decided to bring back this Season is the Chernin brothers (creators of fight milk). The two broke away from Sunny after Season 11 to create and write "The Mick" starring Kaitlin Olson, and they're excited to get back into the room and write Dee once again. For those hoping for some Dee-centric episodes this season, things look ..sunny! 

 Hopefully next Season 17 update brings some additions

-Seth