It didn't take long for “The Millers” to go from a freshman “success” — quotation marks necessary — to a second year cancellation for CBS.
CBS pulled a minor shocker in this week's Friday Evening News Dump, canceling “The Millers” after only four episodes aired in the second season.
It's a slightly odd cancellation, though. “The Millers” is still airing this Monday (November 17) night's episode, with the appropriately grave title “Diggin' Up Bones.” In addition, production will apparently continue for at least one more week before ending.
Created by Greg Garcia and starring Emmy nominee Will Arnett and Emmy winners Margo Martindale and Beau Bridges, “The Millers” premiered to over 13 million viewers last October and was still drawing just under 10 million viewers by its May finale. Everybody knew that those numbers were basically propped up by its “Big Bang Theory” lead-in, but as a CBS Television Studios production, the comedy had enough value to the network to get renewed.
The second “Millers” season added Sean Hayes to the cast, but the “Sean Saves The World” veteran was not a magical panacea.
“The Millers” returned in a new Monday 8:30 slot to 8.9 million viewers and a 2.1 rating among adults 18-49, but that was coming out of a “Big Bang Theory” episode that averaged over 16 million viewers and a 4.6 key demo rating. With the far less robust “2 Broke Girls” as its actual lead-in, “The Millers” has suffered in recent weeks, falling to under 6.5 million viewers and a 1.5 key demo rating for this week's episode. Those numbers are ugly, but they're even worse with CBS not wanting to poison the waters for fragile first-year hit “Scorpion,” which has at least proven its ability to be a self-starter.
It remains to be seen what CBS' plans will now be for the Monday 8:30 slot. The network has “Mike & Molly” on the bench for midseason as a logical contender for the slot. In addition, CBS has “The Odd Couple” waiting in the wings for midseason, though with “The McCarthys” down to under 6.4 million viewers and a 1.4 key demo rating, Thursday nights would seem more likely for that Matthew Perry vehicle.
And no, in answer to your first and only question, I don't know where “The Americans” is in terms of writing/production on Season 3, so I don't know if they'll be able to find a way to get Martindale in for quality time. My hunch? Probably.
Will you miss “The Millers”?