Better Off Ted & Samantha Who? Set To Return In June

ABC has six episodes of Better Off Ted's first season left to air. Since Surviving Suburbia bombed so badly, the network is throwing in the towel and replacing it with Ted. The remaining six will begin airing Tuesday June 23rd at 9pm.

That same week, the network will begin running the final seven episodes of Samantha Who? on Thursday June 25th at 8pm.

Better Off Ted will return mid season next year for a 13 episode second season. I'm hoping the show really catches on this month as there's not much else to watch.

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Samantha Who? Canceled

ABC canceled Samantha Who?. Kind of a surprising move as everyone thought it would get renewed for a third season. The show was pulled from the air a few weeks ago after under performing on Thursday nights. Since the show was pulled off the air early there were talks of slashing the budget and changing from a single-camera production to multi-camera in order to save the series but reports say the network demanded budget reductions of up to $500,000 per episode and a deal just could not be made.


You can read my earlier post about this series and what I think I went wrong here. I put the blame squarely on the network. With all of the comedy pilots they picked up for the 2009/10 season I'm guessing they don't know what the hell they are doing when it comes to half hour comedies. They may not be as bad as Fox in that arena, but hey, we're talking about the network that brought us According To Jim for eight long years.

I would have liked to see Samantha Who? paired with the upcoming Alyssa Milano series the network has ordered.

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Officially Canceled: Life

It was announced today that NBC's Life has been officially canceled. No surprise there. Ratings were low and truthfully, I was surprised it received a second season.

The show actually did pretty well in it's Friday slot but being moved to Wednesdays against Lost was the death of the show.

It's a shame, really, as it was a pretty strong show - good writing, great actors portraying interesting characters and impressive production values.

Other peacock network shows still on the bubble include Medium (grrr), Law & Order, Chuck and My Name Is Earl, though I'm pretty sure Earl is dead and the other three will probably make it through.

Other network shows on the bubble are Fox's Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and ABC's Samantha Who?

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Samantha Who? & Kings Update

Variety reports that, despite being pulled off the air this week, there's still a chance Samantha Who? could return for a third season. The remaining 7 episodes of this season could either be added to next years schedule or, if canceled, aired over the summer. What the heck is going on over at ABC?

At NBC word has come down to suspend Kings until summertime. Saw this coming in the last few weeks.

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ABC Pulls Samantha Who?

In a not so surprising move, ABC has pulled Samantha Who? and In The Motherhood a week early. I posted early, with a bit of surprise, that Samantha Who? was on the bubble. Things have really progressed from there. No word on whether they'll air the pulled episodes at another time.

Their usual Thursday 8pm slot will be filled with Ugly Betty. The decision was made, apparently, to protect darling dramedy Grey's Anatomy. ABC heads felt the low lead-in numbers were hurting their baby. I would have assumed that Grey's was destination television, not dependent on lead-ins, but that's apparently one of the many reasons I'm not a television excecutive.

The downfall of Samantha Who? has been swift, predictable, surprising and a real shame all at once. The show debuted in the 2007 season to high ratings and enjoyed the number one spot for shows of it's type.

Reviews were good and the comedy began racking up critical nods. The show recieved two Emmy nominations and one win, two Golden Globe nods, three People Choice Awards nominations and two wins, two Screen Actors Guild nominations, three Teen Choice Awards noms and one nomination by the Television Critics Association Awards.

Despite a minor stumble where the show dropped to around 7 million viewers during the 2007 holiday season, the show averaged 11.8 million viewers for it's first season. Had the network not put the show on a four month hiatus (Dec 10-April 7) I suspect the first seasons average would have hovered more in the 14 million range.

Surprisingly, season two premiered the following October with over 11 million viewers. You would think that would cement the deal, right? Nope. As if the network had amnesia, the show stumbled again, dropping to just under 7 million viewers during the 2008 holiday season and another lengthy hiatus was imposed.

To add insult to injury, the hiatus was suspended just under four months later with the show on a new night: Thursday. The ignorance that lead to the show being put against NBC's popular Comedy Night Done Right and losing it's very helpful Dancing With The Stars lead-in is pretty shocking. The networks choices when handling an award winning series seem so bad that if I were the conspiracy type I would suggest sabotage.

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2009 Fall Season Preview?

USA Today featured a rundown of what shows have been renewed, what's cancelled and what's still on the bubble.

Here's the link.

I have to say, I am absolutely shocked to see Medium and My Name Is Earl on NBC's bubble list. I can only assume they're not really on the bubble but have just not been announced for renewal yet. If not, I'm gonna be rather angry. This better not be a side effect of that ludicrous Jay Leno 10pm debacle.

I was also surprised to see other network shows that are on the bubble, such as and Samantha Who?The Unit. With all the praise Samantha Who? recieved last year I would have expected it to make it past season 2. As for The Unit, if it's ratings are lagging only one thing can be blamed: sports. It's constantly pre-empted so fans probably miss it quite often.

As for cancellations, the only one that really surprised me was Eleventh Hour. I've enjoyed that show since the beginning. The characters are great and I found the premise and story lines to rather interesting. It's somewhat shocking to see a procedural cop shows taken off like that.

I was also sort of surprised by NBC's cancellation of Life. It hasn't really been all that great this season but the great camera work, action sequences and soundtrack are still A+.

Download them at iTunes: Medium, Life, The Unit, Samantha Who?, My Name Is Earl.

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