The Cleaning Lady is an American crime drama television series developed by Miranda Kwok, based on the 2017 Argentine television series La chica que limpia. The series premiered on Fox on January 3, 2022. In April 2022, it was renewed for a second season, which premiered on September 19, 2022. In February 2023, the series was renewed for a third season, which premiered on March 5, 2024. In May 2024, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on March 25, 2025. In June 2025, the series was canceled after four seasons.
The Cleaning Lady centers on Thony De La Rosa, a Cambodian-Filipino former surgeon who is currently working and living in Las Vegas. She is in the US on an expired visa with her five-year-old son Luca, who has a rare and life-threatening medical disorder for which he needs a cutting-edge bone marrow treatment, which is only available in Las Vegas. In order to do so, Thony makes a living as a cleaning service worker alongside her sister-in-law, Fiona. After Thony witnesses a murder and is discovered by Arman Morales, the perpetrator, she is offered a job both as a cleaner and a doctor within Arman's criminal organization that could pay well enough to help her son and her family. As a result, Thony begins living a double life, keeping secrets from her family, while cleaning up crime scenes and evading the law.
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On October 22, 2019, it was announced that Warner Bros. Television Studios had acquired the remake rights to the Spanish-language Argentine television series La Chica Que Limpia and was developing an English-language adaptation for Fox, with a script commitment attached. Miranda Kwok was set to write and develop the series adaptation, with Kwok also attached to executive produce with Melissa Carter and Shay Mitchell. On January 23, 2020, Fox gave the project a pilot order, the first for the network's 2020âÂÂ21 television season, with Fox Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television Studios set as co-production partners. The series was ultimately pushed back to the 2021âÂÂ22 television season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Fox giving a series greenlight consisting of ten hour-long episodes on May 7, 2021. Carter was set as showrunner and executive producer along with Kwok, and Michael Offer was also announced as director and executive producer of the pilot. On May 17, 2021, during Fox's Upfront presentation, it was confirmed the series would premiere as a midseason entry during the 2021âÂÂ22 television season.
On April 7, 2022, Fox renewed the series for a second season. On August 25, 2022, it was reported that Kwok was promoted to showrunner, alongside Carter, for the second season. On February 1, 2023, Fox renewed the series for a third season, and Jeannine Renshaw joined as an executive producer and co-showrunner. The series was renewed for a 12-episode fourth season on May 12, 2024, with a new showrunner to be announced. On July 10, 2024, Daniel Cerone joined the series as an executive producer and the new showrunner for the fourth season. On June 6, 2025, the series was canceled after four seasons.
In March 2020, Shannyn Sossamon, Adan Canto, Ginger Gonzaga, and Vincent Piazza were cast in main roles for the pilot. However, Sossamon exited the project after the pilot's initial table read. On April 6, 2020, ÃÂlodie Yung was cast to replace Sossamon in the lead role. It was announced that the ethnicity of Yung's character would be changed to match Yung's Cambodian background, but that aspects of Filipino culture would still be integrated. On July 2, 2020, Fox extended the cast options for the pilot through September 30, with the previous option having expired on June 30. Due to the pandemic, cast options were extended further on October 2, 2020. Upon the series order announcement, it was publicized that Martha Millan had replaced Gonzaga in the series and that Piazza had dropped out. In addition, twins Sebastien and Valentino LaSalle were also cast in a shared starring role. On July 13, 2021, Oliver Hudson was cast to replace Piazza. On September 21, 2021, Shiva Negar and Jay Mohr joined the cast in recurring roles. On December 14, 2021, Liza Weil and Eva De Dominici were cast in recurring capacities. In August 2022, De Dominici was promoted to a series regular, while Chelsea Frei was cast in a recurring role and Naveen Andrews joined as a series regular for the second season. On September 27, 2022, K.C. Collins joined the cast in a recurring role for the second season. In December 2023, Kate del Castillo, Santiago Cabrera, and Clayton Cardenas were cast as new series regulars for the third season. The same month, Jacqueline Obradors and Jason Manuel Olazabal joined the cast in recurring roles for the third season. Canto died on January 8, 2024, at the age of 42, from appendix cancer. On January 31, 2024, Brandon Jay McLaren and JB Tadena were cast in recurring capacities for the third season. On November 11, 2024, Yancey Arias joined the cast in a recurring role, while Khalen Roman Sanchez came onboard as a new series regular in a recasting, replacing the LaSalle twins for the fourth season. On November 25, 2024, Daniel Bonjour and Alain Uy were cast in recurring capacities for the fourth season. On March 18, 2025, Patricia De León and Robert Cicchini joined the cast in recurring roles, while Lea Salonga joined as a guest star for the fourth season.
The pilot originally started filming on March 10, 2020, in New Mexico, but production was suspended three days later due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By July 2020, Fox had committed to filming the pilot alongside the network's five other pilots ordered for the 2020âÂÂ21 television season, with production set to resume that summer. However, filming was delayed again to October 5, 2020, and again to February 2021.
The first season of The Cleaning Lady premiered on January 3, 2022, and concluded on March 14, 2022, on Fox. The second season debuted on September 19, 2022, and concluded on December 12, 2022. The third season premiered on March 5, 2024, and concluded on May 21, 2024. The fourth season premiered on March 25, 2025. The series is available to stream on Max.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 60% approval rating based on 15 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Elodie Yung is winning as a resourceful protagonist in over her head, but The Cleaning Lady needs to polish its clichés into something more substantial if it wants to truly sparkle." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 53 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
In January 2026, an arrest warrant was issued against Timothy Busfield for sexually abusing twin boys he met on the set of The Cleaning Lady. The accuser stated that the abuse occurred while the show was still airing from November 2022 to early 2024, with the alleged abuse also first being reported in November 2024, just after their roles were recast.