‘Happy Endings’ season 3 pushed to Fridays, fans cry a little inside
ABC just didn’t do “Happy Endings” any favors this year; and at the end of the day, we don’t know if there are any comedy series that have been botched more since the fall TV season began. We’ll start things off here by reporting the news: beginning on February 26, ABC will be moving “The Taste” to 9:00 p.m. Eastern, and programming in “Celebrity Wife Swap” at 8:00. This means that “Happy Endings” will shift to Fridays beginning on March 29, and will air back-to-back episodes prior to “Shark Tank.” By this time, both “Last Man Standing” and “Malibu Country” will have aired their full seasons.
Now, let’s get into the many follies for ABC this year in damaging what may have been their strongest overall comedy.
1. First, the show debuted it October in a timeslot that was following the “Dancing with the Stars” results, which is one of the oldest-skewing on TV. These people are not interested in a young-skewing comedy with adult humor. Just not a great fit.
2. Then, remember that by the time the show premiered in October, NBC and Fox had already established comedy competition in “Go On” and “New Girl,” respectively. These three shows are all too similar, and they all damaged each other. Since “Happy Endings” premiered the latest, it was hurt beyond repair.
3. There wasn’t really any promotion for the show at all this year.
4. While the network’s programming head Paul Lee proclaimed he was a fan of the show, here’s what we don’t get: why put this show on Tuesdays, when “The Neighbors” may have benefited more from the family-friendly “Dancing with the Stars” audience? “Happy Endings” was not necessarily a perfect fit on Wednesdays, either, but it was a better fit than here.
If you are a “Happy Endings” fan, this move is close to a kiss of death … but we wouldn’t give up yet. Considering TBS did pick up “Cougar Town,” could they consider doing the same thing here? The show is hurt by not having an A-list star, but it certainly fits their brand of somewhat-edgy comedies.
What do you think: is “Happy Endings” a dead show walking? If you do want to check out some more of what is coming up this season, you can do so over here.
Photo: ABC