ABC backs off The Middle spin-off featuring Eden Sher
Alas, it doesn’t appear as though The Middle will be getting a spin-off featuring Sue Heck — at least on ABC.
According to a new report coming in via Deadline, the network is backing off of their plan to film a pilot for a series tentatively titled Sue Sue in the City, one that was described as followed in the official logline:
“Cue the Sue happy dance. More Sue Heck is on the way. The series follows the twentysomething adventures of eternal optimist Sue Heck as she leaves the small town of Orson to navigate the ups and downs of a career and young adulthood in the big city of Chicago.”
Does this necessarily mean that the series is over and done with? Not necessarily, as producing studio Warner Bros. TV is going to look to take the show to some other networks. We could foresee there being some interested people out there, but admittedly ABC was the one that made the most sense. They have excelled for many years within the family-comedy brand, and for them the original The Middle became an underrated pop-culture instituted. While it never necessarily was #1 in the ratings, it managed to post consistent numbers and acquire some critical acclaim throughout its run. Sue Heck was one of the best characters within that show, and we certainly understood why the series wanted to go in this direction — especially when you think about the premise of her moving to a big city. It’s the sort of fish-out-of-water comedy that the majority of major networks tend to love to put on the air … it just wasn’t apparently perfect for this particular point in ABC’s history.
We do think that there are two factors to consider here, with the first being that ABC just changed over programming heads — Channing Dungey was in charge back when this show was put in development. The news regarding this show plus the cancellation of Take Two could be, at least in part, a byproduct to the major regime change.
As of right now, we will see if something more comes from this but from our vantage point, it’s not all that hard to understand what ABC’s plan would have been in the event that this spin-off was picked up: More than likely, this show would have replaced The Conners in its timeslot Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. The Middle aired at that spot previously and this just seemed to make some sense from a synergy standpoint. The largest reason why the network may have gone in a different direction is simply because they may have thought that doing a show about young adulthood, even with a familiar character, wouldn’t have meshed with all of their other shows featuring parents and children.
What do you think about the spin-off for The Middle not going forward at ABC? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments right now.