The week ended with good news for two pretty great, but not particularly well-rated sitcoms on ABC, as the network picked up full season orders on both The Trophy Wife and The Goldbergs. While neither sitcom has been huge ratings performers for ABC, the network decided to let them stick around after they managed to hold on to their audiences without a first-run Agents of SHIELD lead-in last week. That means that while the audience for both sitcoms is not substantial, at least it’s not only viewers too lazy to change the channel after SHIELD. Meanwhile, Rebel Wilson’s Super Fun Night didn’t do as well without its first-run Modern Family lead-in, but ABC has enough faith in its star to give it an additional four episodes to prove itself.
The one new ABC sitcom not to get a full-season order, however, was Back in the Game, which was cancelled by ABC. No word yet on what will fill its slot. I didn’t particularly like the sitcom, but Maggie Lawson was adorable in it. Here’s hoping that she gets to be adorable in more things.
Part of the reason that lower-rated shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Trophy Wife and The Goldbergs are being saved this season is that DVR viewership is skyrocketing. In fact, many shows are doubling their audiences after DVR viewership is accounted for. Brooklyn Nine-Nine added 97 percent after 30 days, once DVR and other platforms were accounted for, bringing in nearly 15 million viewers. Not bad for a show whose overnight ratings were in the 2.0 range.
The other cancellation wasn’t on a network. Lifetime sh*tcanned Jennifer Love Hewitt’s The Client List, not because of ratings, really, but because the network couldn’t come to terms with JLW during contract negotiations. The sticking point was that J. LoHo wanted to have her real-life husband play her baby-daddy on the show, and Lifetime wasn’t about that. Fans of the show will no doubt be crushed, as season two ended on a cliffhanger that will now never be resolved.
We’ll always have this together.