‘The Michael J. Fox Show’ effectively canceled; ‘Hollywood Game Night’ scheduled

This was news that is very sad to see, but almost everyone saw it coming: The end of “The Michael J. Fox Show” at NBC. Despite getting a full season before a pilot was even shot last year, the network has basically decided to pull the plug now and will not air remaining episodes of the show.

Basically, the network has decided to shift “Hollywood Game Night” episodes over to Thursday nights at 9:00 p.m. starting the week after the Olympics on February 27, which means that both it and the already-canceled “Sean Saves the World” are not on the schedule anymore.

Almost everyone was a big believer in this show at first, given that “Spin City” and “Family Ties” were big hits for Fox, and the belief here was that this would be just as strong. Also, you had the first new show for Betsy Brandt following “Breaking Bad,” and she was brilliant in the pilot and pretty much throughout.

The problems for this show we believe were twofold:

1. NBC made a mistake in not making this show multi-camera, which is the venue that Michael was so great at the first two times that he did a show.

2. The subject matter was just not that interesting beyond the initial premise. This is what happens at times when you based something off of the life of your star. You get off to a great start, but when things start to dry up story-wise, you are left with a little bit of a gaping hole and questions regarding just what you want to do the rest of the way.

Were you surprised to see the show canceled, and do you feel especially bad for Fox that this didn’t work? Share below! Also, sign up now for our CarterMatt Newsletter if you want to get even more TV updates from us.

Photo: NBC