Fox cuts ‘Mulaney’ episode order; does this mean show is canceled?

Do we have our first cancellation of the fall season already? Not exactly, but things are not looking so bright and cheery for the comedy “Mulaney.”

The John Mulaney sitcom, which felt like it really wanted to be the next “Seinfeld,” is seeing its first-season order cut to 13 episodes after two weeks of woeful ratings during the Sunday-night Fox comedy block. It’s also had a fairly decent lead-in most of the time in “Family Guy,” even if the show aired a repeat on one of the two weeks that it has been on the air so far.

Even if this announcement was made, it does not completely look like Fox is getting set to pull the show off of the schedule entirely. There is still a lot of time for the numbers to improve, even if it seems unlikely given the reviews.

We are disappointed that this show has not become something more, largely because of the talent that is involved here. Mulaney is a great standup, and most of his comedy writing on “Saturday Night Live” was superb. He even contributed in a way to the return of Stefon on the Bill Hader episode of the series. He also has Martin Short and Nasim Pedrad as cast members here, and Lorne Michaels is even still involved to a certain extent. Basically, you’ve got the components of a hit here, even if it is not working out in the way that we would have hoped.

If there is a glimmer of hope for the show, it is this: “Seinfeld” wasn’t very good during the early going either, and wasn’t really until the third season before it started to get consistently funny almost every week. (There were a few standout season 2 episodes, though.)

What do you think: Is there hope for “Mulaney”? Share with a comment, and head over here to get some other great TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo via Fox.)