Ellen Pompeo’s ‘Good American Family’ Gets 2nd Installment (Exclusive)

EXCLUSIVE: Good American Family is becoming an anthology — Hulu has greenlighted a limited series about Lorena Bobbitt as its second installment. It comes from the same team, led by creator, writer and executive producer Katie Robbins and executive producer Ellen Pompeo.

Shortly after the Good American Family finale aired on April 30, 2025, Pompeo and Robbins started to discuss ideas for expanding the limited series into an anthology, with Lorena Bobbitt quickly emerging as a subject of a followup installment under the Good American Family banner. By June, the project was heating up for a green light.

The cases of Ukrainian-born girl with dwarfism Natalia Grace, which was covered in the original Good American Family, and of Lorena Bobbitt share some similarities — both feature smilingly ordinary families, both tell stories with bizarre elements that made headlines around the world and stayed in the tabloids for months, and both involve two sides with contradicting accounts of the events.

Per Season 2’s official logline, it is Inspired by the ripped-from-the-headlines story of Lorena and John Bobbitt, a Virginia couple who incited a media circus that treated trauma as entertainment, launched a thousand dirty jokes, and ignited a gender war.

In 1993, Lorena severed John’s penis and drove around with it for awhile before throwing it out and calling the police. She explained her actions as triggered by systemic abuse — psychological, physical and sexual — she had allegedly suffered at the hands of her husband.

The infamous incident was the subject of the 2020 I Was Lorena Bobbitt, part of Lifetime’s Ripped from the Headlines TV movie franchise, which was narrated and executive produced by Lorena Bobbitt, with Dani Montalvo portraying her and Luke Humphrey playing John Bobbitt. There was also the 2019 Amazon true crime docu-series Lorena, produced by Jordan Peele, which features interviews with both Lorena and John.

Pompeo and Laura Holstein executive produce under their Calamity Jane banner, alongside Andrew Stearn who also served as EP on the original Good American Family. Pompeo, who played the adoptive mom in Season 1, is not expected to act in the second installment.

Since its March 2025 launch, Good American Family has amassed more than 140M hours streamed globally on Hulu and Disney+.

This marks the second Hulu green light for Robbins and Pompeo this summer; they also have dramedy Chicks starring Pompeo, which received a pilot order in June. Both Good American Family and Chicks are produced by 20th Television, part of Disney Television Studios, which signed Robbins into an overall deal earlier this summer and where Calamity Jane is based.

Robbins also created Apple TV and A24’s dark comedy Sunny, starring Rashida Jones and was a writer-producer on Showtime’s The Affair. She is repped by UTA, Aaron Kogan Management, and Jonathan Shikora of Lichter, Grossman, Nichols.

Pompeo stars in and executive produces ABC’s venerable medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, which is headed into its 23rd season. She also executive produced spinoff series Station 19 and is an executive producer on the upcoming offshoot set in West Texas, which will premiere in midseason 2027. Pompeo is repped by CAA, Linden Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson.