‘Partners’ canceled by CBS; what does this mean for ‘Rules of Engagement’?

Weeks later than many of us expected, CBS has finally made a decision when it comes to “Partners” … and it’s not a good one for Michael Urie and the rest of the cast. After several weeks of middling ratings leading up to a series low Monday night, the network has made the decision to pull the plug on the show. Not only that, but it will be pulled from the schedule immediately and replaced with repeats.

The biggest problem with “Partners” was made apparent almost right away: the title was terrible, since “partners” as a term is really rather ambiguous whereas even something like “Friends” or “Two and a Half Men” gives you a better sense of what this show is about. “Community” is one of the few examples of a show with a pretty poor title actually staying on the air, and that was because the content was so good that it was able to make up for it. Here, there was not much that was any different than what you see on any other sitcom.

So where does CBS go from here? It actually seems to be pretty easy to figure out. Likely, they will premiere the new season of “Rules of Engagement” in this timeslot early next year, and run it out so that they can later give this spot to new series “Friend Me” during April and the May sweeps, mostly so that they will have a show that is closer to being a guaranteed success for them in long run. “Rules of Engagement” has undeservedly long been filler for the network, as they really just keep it around as an alternative in the event that one of their other shows fails to pan out.

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