Murphy Brown, Happy Together not officially canceled at CBS … yet
Instead, here is what is going on with the recently-revived classic comedy series. Back when it was first ordered for 13 episodes, the idea then was that this was going to be a close-ended sort of comedy limited series; there wasn’t necessarily a plan to do more, but the door was seemingly always open to it. Even if the show drew incredible ratings this fall, there was no guarantee that there would be more down the line.
Yet, the ratings for the revival have not been as strong as many expected. While the average viewership of 6.2 million weekly viewers is not terrible, the show is receiving a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That would probably be more than acceptable for some other networks that are out there, but it is probably not as acceptable for CBS. This is a network that has a tendency to expect a lot from a number of its shows and understandably so; they’ve had so many hit comedies over the years.
So what is CBS actually going to do here with Murphy Brown? At this particular moment, the safest guess is that they will wait and see what the ratings for the spring lineup are going to be. They are ending its show with its already-planned episode order but since it is not officially canceled, they will revisit it down the line. The same goes here for another one of their series in Happy Together, which features Damon Wayans Jr. as one of the leads. He was an enormous get back during pilot season but in the aftermath of that, the ratings haven’t quite been there. Unlike Murphy Brown, we’ve got a feeling that Happy Together could have actually been picked up for additional episodes. That didn’t happen here mostly from a ratings vantage point. Because they were not anywhere near strong enough, it will just be going off the air as Man with a Plan takes its place in the new year. (In the end, though, CBS will still formally decide on the future of Happy Together in the spring.)
The big takeaway here
Neither Murphy Brown or Happy Together are officially canceled, but the fact that neither one of them is on the CBS schedule for the new year does signal that the network could be going in another direction. We just have to wait and see if that sticks.
Related News – Be sure to get some more information right now regarding Murphy Brown
Would you miss Murphy Brown if it ended up being officially canceled over at CBS? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments. (Photo: CBS.)