The 9 highest-rated canceled shows: "Rob" was axed with 12 million viewers

[TMC]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/15/canceled-shows/

"Rob" had way more viewers than "Community," which was renewed.

[EmoJoe]

Well obviously if NBC had a comedy with Rob numbers, it would be renewed in a heartbeat and would likely be toted as the Show Of A Generation and make every entertainment magazine cover in the world. But since it was on CBS, expectations are higher, and Rob had to go.

[noveel]

Low rated shows can survive if they are cheap to produce

[catsrule]

9 shows, they couldn't make a full top 10?

[ajgenard]

Can't say I'm sorry to see any of these go, in fact I'm actually glad that Rob is over. I think this will prove to be a precedent year in a changing of the tides. It's quite obvious that ratings are finally being taken less seriously with a growing number of factors that determine a show's fate. Some shows like Community should be thanking their lucky stars we live in the fan-driven internet era. It now seems if a show has enough dedicated followers, it can survive regardless of what the numbers say. As little as 10 years ago this phenomenon would not have happened.

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

9 million viewers? I've never even HEARD of it.

[USATVFAN]

So True! 20-30 Years ago if a show got 8-10 Million viewers it would be cancelled after 8 Episodes or even less! But now we got Cable and lot and lot of Channels and more choices! As well at the Internet and Hutu. Now the network offer Full Episodes of all their shows on their website just hours after they aired.

[Pavan]

This is why overall audience is not telling. Rob had a huge lead-in and didn't hold much of it in live ratings. Its lead-in Big Bang has heavy same day DVR ratings but even with the live only ratings Rob wasn't cutting it by holding much. Also a factor was the show didn't come out too well.

Those ratings EW gave looks like seven day ratings as they look a little high.

[TVFactFan]

Wait a minute, so that means that Mike and Molly has more than 12 million viewers???

[USATVFAN]

Wait a minute, so that means that Mike and Molly has more than 12 million viewers???
Mike & Molly Get between 11-13 Million Viewers a week this season.

[Pavan]

No, Rob's ratings are a little off on that site. It looks like either premiere ratings or seven day ratings.

Mike & Molly is getting about 9-10 million a week in live+same day.

[TVFactFan]

No, Rob's ratings are a little off on that site. It looks like either premiere ratings or seven day ratings.

Mike & Molly is getting about 9-10 million a week in live+same day.


Oh ok, thanks for clearing that up because it just wasn't adding up

[USATVFAN]

No, Rob's ratings are a little off on that site. It looks like either premiere ratings or seven day ratings.

Mike & Molly is getting about 9-10 million a week in live+same day.

Actually they are getting between 11-`13 Million viewers a week according to TvBytheNumbers and other sites.

[Pavan]

http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/search/label/Weekly%20Ratings It's about 10 for the season.

[comedyfreak]

NBC canceled Harry's Law which was getting almost 10 million viewers. It doesn't make any sense how the moronic execs make their decisions. I hope Rules of Engagement doesn't get the axe too.

[LUNCH]

20-30 Years ago if a show got 8-10 Million viewers it would be cancelled after 8 Episodes or even less! But now we got Cable and lot and lot of Channels and more choices! As well at the Internet and Hutu. Now the network offer Full Episodes of all their shows on their website just hours after they aired.
True they would have been yanked off the air and have been considered failures. And of course 30+ years ago the population was a lot lower in the US than it is now,yet top shows then often got well over 30 million viewers a week.-- Even though there are extra choices in viewing television nowadays,the number of viewers these so-called 'hit' shows are pulling in is still quite low.I guess it does not take much to become a 'hit' these days.

[megamanj2004]

I knew Rob wasn't even gonna last long on CBS, especially with the way that show stereotypes Latin ethnicities and there aren't even too many Latin actors/actresses on that show.

[hawkeye123]

The only 2 that i cared about remotely on that list.Would be desperate housewives and house.I never saw any of the other ones.with me though i think sitcoms should keep going as long as i like them.if it was up to me we'd still be watching the 80's and 90's sitcoms lol

[EmoJoe]

True they would have been yanked off the air and have been considered failures. And of course 30+ years ago the population was a lot lower in the US than it is now,yet top shows then often got well over 30 million viewers a week.-- Even though there are extra choices in viewing television nowadays,the number of viewers these so-called 'hit' shows are pulling in is still quite low.I guess it does not take much to become a 'hit' these days.
30 years ago there were three channels and the only way to watch TV was live while it was airing. Today there are hundreds of channels and many ways to watch TV other than live viewing. Obviously, the top shows now aren't going to get the same numbers they were getting then. More people are watching TV now than they were at any point in history. They're just doing it in different ways.

NBC canceled Harry's Law which was getting almost 10 million viewers. It doesn't make any sense how the moronic execs make their decisions. I hope Rules of Engagement doesn't get the axe too.
Harry's Law was cancelled because its 18-49 demo numbers were incredibly low (the lowest on the network and among the lowest on network TV), which is the only number advertisers care about. That's a whole other debate in and of itself, but it's how it is.

[kattviews]

I thought this was a list of the highest cancelled TV shows!

Chicken Soup is an American sitcom that aired on ABC, starring Jackie Mason and Lynn Redgrave on 1989.

It lasted one season.

Chicken Soup was #13 in the ratings.


Bridget Loves Bernie stars Meredith Baxter and David Birney as the title characters, and ran for one season, from 1972 to 1973 on CBS.

Bridget Loves Bernie was #5 in the ratings.

[Yong Fang]

If Harry's Law was cancelled because the viewership were too old, why did Matlock, Diagnosis Murder, Murder She Wrote, or Touched by an Angel so successful? These shows were made for fogies.

[EmoJoe]

If Harry's Law was cancelled because the viewership were too old, why did Matlock, Diagnosis Murder, Murder She Wrote, or Touched by an Angel so successful? These shows were made for fogies.
They still got high enough 18 - 49 demo ratings to stay on the air, even if they skewed old. Plus those shows had many, many more viewers than Harry's Law to begin with.

[kattviews]

If Harry's Law was cancelled because the viewership were too old, why did Matlock, Diagnosis Murder, Murder She Wrote, or Touched by an Angel so successful? These shows were made for fogies.

Also, we live in different times in a different world too.

DVD and the internet come into play now. :eek:

Nowadays, most shows won't get a chance like Cheers in the 1980's.

[EmoJoe]

Actually I think you could argue things like DVD sales & internet popularity lead to more shows getting a chance than they once did. It sort of gives low-rated shows another thing they can be good at to try and get saved. They don't play a huge role but I think they might play some part in saving shows that aren't big ratings hit. I really doubt most of NBC's current comedies would still be on the air if they didn't have the support that they do. The same can be said for shows like Happy Endings, Raising Hope, ect.

[kattviews]

Actually I think you could argue things like DVD sales & internet popularity lead to more shows getting a chance than they once did. It sort of gives low-rated shows another thing they can be good at to try and get saved. They don't play a huge role but I think they might play some part in saving shows that aren't big ratings hit. I really doubt most of NBC's current comedies would still be on the air if they didn't have the support that they do. The same can be said for shows like Happy Endings, Raising Hope, ect.

I think, ratings wise, it is hard to get big ratings.

Today, the ratings is based on the TV time slot and 3 day DVR.

We can watch the show ANY time on the web and the DVD.

Oh yeah, the game systems too. LOL


One more thing, I believed we need to wait a week (for non Hulu plus subscribers) to watch the TV show from the actual TV broadcast date, which doesn't count toward the ratings.

[Stuck In The '70's]

If Harry's Law was cancelled because the viewership were too old, why did Matlock, Diagnosis Murder, Murder She Wrote, or Touched by an Angel so successful? These shows were made for fogies.

18-49 wasn't as big back then. I remember looking at the ratings in the newspapers every week ( This is before I had the internet). The paper only posted the total viewers. All of those shows were squarely in the top 20. ( Well Diagnosis Murder wasn't but that was because it aired opposite NBC's Must See TV Lineup). I never even heard much about the demo until the last decade. I remember when Family Ties moved opposite of Murder She Wrote in 1987. I was angry because I knew ratings would drop. And I'm sure FT was more popular with younger viewers than MSW. The newspapers all reported how MSW eventually killed FT even though the show was going to end anyway because the cast was ready to move on.

[EmoJoe]

18-49 wasn't as big back then. I remember looking at the ratings in the newspapers every week ( This is before I had the internet). The paper only posted the total viewers. All of those shows were squarely in the top 20. ( Well Diagnosis Murder wasn't but that was because it aired opposite NBC's Must See TV Lineup). I never even heard much about the demo until the last decade. I remember when Family Ties moved opposite of Murder She Wrote in 1987. I was angry because I knew ratings would drop. And I'm sure FT was more popular with younger viewers than MSW. The newspapers all reported how MSW eventually killed FT even though the show was going to end anyway because the cast was ready to move on.
The demo numbers probably didn't get much attention outside of the industry, but they've been used since the early days of television. It's not a new concept.

[Stuck In The '70's]

The demo numbers probably didn't get much attention outside of the industry, but they've been used since the early days of television. It's not a new concept.
It is a new concept on how much imput it has though. I used to follow ratings daily. I used to read them every week in USA Today. I still collect tv guides and I've been doing that since 1983. If you read any of them from the 1980's and the early 90's, they never talk about the demo. I'm not saying they weren't used but it wasn't as relevant as it is now on what shows get canceled. If a show was in the top 20-30, chances are it would get renewed unless it really lost viewers from it's lead..Murder She Wrote was a top 10 hit through most of it's existence. I never heard about the demo and it obviously didn't matter much as the show lasted 12 years. In the 1970's, I'm sure the Waltons tilted toward an older audience then Happy Days and ABC's lineup. It never stopped it from lasting a long time. Matlock wasn't even in the top 20 when ABC picked it up in 1993. The only time I remember a network canceling a bunch of shows because of who was watching was CBS in 1971 when they got rid of all the rural shows.

[Regulus]

I read somewhere that in 1961 a Show called Mr. Lucky actually made it to No. 1 in the Ratings, but because the Primary Charactor ran an "Adult Penny Arcade" (That's Casino for those of you in Rio Linda!) :lol: it became a Controversial show for it's time and was cancelled after only one season.

[James28]

I read somewhere that in 1961 a Show called Mr. Lucky actually made it to No. 1 in the Ratings, but because the Primary Charactor ran an "Adult Penny Arcade" (That's Casino for those of you in Rio Linda!) :lol: it became a Controversial show for it's time and was cancelled after only one season.

Mr. Lucky was cancelled (or "fired") at the end of the 1959-60 season because of the failure of the CBS network to find a replacement sponsor after Lever Brothers and Brown & Williamson cancelled their sponsorship of the series.

[Stuck In The '70's]

Mr. Lucky was cancelled (or "fired") at the end of the 1959-60 season because of the failure of the CBS network to find a replacement sponsor after Lever Brothers and Brown & Williamson cancelled their sponsorship of the series.
Yea you had a few shows canceled because of arguments with sponsors. Jamie was canceled in the 1950's because of that. Bridget Loves Bernie was canceled because of religious groups in the 1970's even though it was in the top 5.

[Stuck In The '70's]

I read somewhere that in 1961 a Show called Mr. Lucky actually made it to No. 1 in the Ratings, but because the Primary Charactor ran an "Adult Penny Arcade" (That's Casino for those of you in Rio Linda!) :lol: it became a Controversial show for it's time and was cancelled after only one season.
Yea you had some shows canceled because of controversy. SWAT was a hit show with kids but parents objected because they thought it was too violent. I remember kids in my neighborhood used to imitate them. That was back in the days when you could have toy guns. I had alot of them. :lol: