Maximizing the totality of Friday’s (October 25) news cycle, FOX has officially given a full-season order to the critically reviled, ratings challenged freshman comedy “Dads.”
What? Tell me “Dads” wasn’t critically reviled or that it isn’t ratings challenged?
At least for now, Seth MacFarlane gets the last laugh, which isn’t surprising.
In the release announcing the back-nine order for “Dads,” FOX trumpets that “Dads” ranks as one of the season’s Top 10 new shows among men 18-34 and one of the Top 10 new comedies among men 18-49 and women 18-49.
I’ll repeat that: FOX dug as deep as “Top 10 new comedies among men 18-49 and women 18-34.” By my count, 13 new comedies have premiered this fall, including “We Are Men” and “Welcome to the Family,” which have already been cancelled. So you can stop and pause to think about all of the demographics in which “Dads” did not make the Top 10 new comedies, apparently.
“FOX has been looking to break into the multi-camera format for some time,” blurbs FOX Entertainment Chairman Reilly. “With ‘Dads,’ we have an asset that we can grow, and we”re looking forward to seeing where the fantastic cast and the creative minds of Seth, Alec, Mike and Wellesley take us the rest of the season.”
Through its first three telecasts, “Dads” is averaging a 2.2 rating among adults 18-49 for Live+7 figures. In its most recent Live+SD airing, “Dads” averaged 3.42 million viewers and a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49.
Created by Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, “Dads” stars Seth Green, Giovanni Ribisi, Peter Riegert, Martin Mull, Vanessa Lachey and Brenda Song, who hasn’t been asked to dress up as a schoolgirl since the pilot.
The “Dads” pickup came a week after FOX ordered a full season for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and gave that slightly more successful and vastly more critically admired comedy the second of its two post-Super Bowl slots, airing after an episode of “New Girl.”
The “Dads” pickup came hours after FOX announced its spring 2014 schedule, which appears to keep the network’s Tuesday comedy block intact, with the new comedy “Enlisted” still heading for Fridays and another new sitcom, “Surviving Jack,” heading for a cushier slot after “American Idol” on Thursdays.
I’ve stuck with “Dads,” because Kevin Reilly told me to. It hasn’t gotten funnier, but it hasn’t been especially offensive for a while.
Have you stuck with “Dads”? Are you pleased with the full-season order?