Is Life in Pieces canceled, renewed at CBS? Season 5’s status
Is Life in Pieces canceled over at CBS? Watching tonight’s finale may prove to be a bittersweet experience. It is a chance to see the end of a chapter of this story … but it’s also the end of the overall book.
Despite Life in Pieces having itself a solid, stable audience, the comedy is not going to have a chance to make us laugh in the future (outside of reruns). Tonight is the series finale, as CBS handed out their cancellation notice earlier this year. The reasoning for that is all about numbers — season 4 is averaging a 0.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic, down more than 35% from where the show was for the third season. You can blame CBS, in part, for the drop — this is the first year that Life in Pieces didn’t have a role in the fall schedule, and it’s also the first year that it had a reduced episode order. There was a time when this was considered a pristine part of their comedy lineup, but that time is long past. The moment that season 4 was scheduled for a premiere in the late spring, the writing was on the wall that this was a show going the way of the dodo.
This move on CBS’ part is still surprising for a couple of different reasons. For one, they don’t have many single-camera comedies like Life in Pieces and format-wise, it could have made a good companion to Young Sheldon in the fall. With The Big Bang Theory over, it felt like there was a prime opportunity for it to succeed alongside a show similar in style. Also, Life in Pieces was so close to potential syndication. If season 4 had been a full 22-episode season, it may have had an opportunity to get there either at the end of this batch or in season 5. Maybe CBS didn’t see much of a syndicated market out there for this show, or maybe they wouldn’t have seen enough of the money to care. Here’s a secret reason why the show was canceled before maybe others — it hails from 20th Century Fox TV, meaning that CBS doesn’t get the same money from it that they do for some of their other hits.
No matter the reason, enjoy the finale tonight. Laugh one last time, and then go and watch the show live on in repeats or in streaming. This is the end of the road for Life in Pieces pending some sort of last-minute resurrection, but we’re not hearing any news on that coming.
What do you think about Life in Pieces being canceled over at CBS? Do you wish that there was another chance at more episodes? Share in the comments.