It’s a plotline that would make a great episode of “The Paul Reiser Show”: NBC gives long-forgotten comic Paul Reiser another TV comedy, only to put the show on the shelf for the majority of the season. Then, after an abruptly announced and heavily promoted launch, NBC cancels the sitcom after only two episodes, leaving Paul Reiser to return to hanging out with his friends.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), it’s a plotline of “The Paul Reiser Show” that viewers will never get to see. After sitting on the shelf for most of the season and an abruptly announced and heavily promoted launch, “The Paul Reiser Show” has been pulled after only two airings.
Effective immediately, “The Paul Reiser Show” has been yanked from NBC’s Thursday schedule and replaced with repeats of “The Office.” “The Paul Reiser Show” averaged 3.3 million viewers and a 1.1 rating among adults 18-49 in its first airing and 2.5 million viewers and a 0.9 demo rating in its second airing, losing to The CW’s “The Vampire Diaries” among young viewers both weeks.
Lest fans of “Perfect Couples” — Yes, there are some — get too filled with hubris by the “Paul Reiser Show” failure, it should be noted that the last two episodes of “Perfect Couples” averaged 2.26 and 2.14 million viewers respectively and both did a 1.0 demo rating. So don’t expect the lesson learned by NBC to be “We never should have pulled ‘Perfect Couples.'”
Neither “Perfect Couples” nor “The Paul Reiser Show” have officially been cancelled. Their fates will be announced by NBC next month. Meanwhile, the network still hasn’t announced airing plans for the already-shot midseason offerings “Love Bites” and “Friends with Benefits.”
The “Paul Reiser Show” news was widely reported, but broke first on TheFutonCritic website.