‘Ben and Kate’ officially canceled; Dana Fox, Echo Kellum respond
As if the news about “Ben and Kate’s” cancellation was not sad enough, how is this for terrible news? The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Friday marked the last day of production for the critically-beloved series, which struggled to find an audience in a difficult timeslot on Tuesday nights. Sixteen episodes of the show’s original eighteen-episode order ended up being filmed, and it is unclear when or even if the rest of the unaired installments will hit the air (though we are guessing summer).
As we said already following the initial news that “Ben and Kate” was being pulled from Fox’s schedule, we believe the real reasons that the show suffered were simply due to a lack of promotion and airing at a time that put it up against “The Voice,” “Dancing with the Stars,” and “NCIS” … otherwise known as three of the most-popular shows on TV. Those who did find the show found a lovely little gem of a show that had some funny characters, plenty of heart, and some creative storylines that we did not see done on every other single-camera comedy under the sun.
Is there anything you can do to save the show at this point? It may be a far longshot, but the best hope you may have is petitioning a network like TBS to take a look at the show, given that they recently saved “Cougar Town” from cancellation and “Ben and Kate” could be a good fit on their lineup. Unfortunately, it’s not edgy enough for FX, and USA is still too early in their original comedy development cycle to really pick up a show from a network (even if there are characters in here that fit the “Characters Welcome” slogan).
We’ll close here with a pair of messages from two of the people responsible for helping to make “Ben and Kate” the show that it was: showrunner Dana Fox and star Echo Kellum (Tommy).
Fox – “I’m heartbroken but will get back to being funny soon. Thank you to everyone who made this the best experience of my life!!”
Kellum – “My network and I just broke up. She is a great girl, and I’m glad she gave us a shot as long as she did. I’ll miss you.”
Photo: Fox