Following two poorly-rated airings, CBS has officially rid itself of new comedy “We are Men.”
Shocking not that it happened but that it happened so quickly–faster than was the case for last year’s flop “Partners”–the “We are Men” cancellation is the second of the fall season. Last week, rival network ABC pulled the plug on abysmally-rated drama “Lucky 7,” also after airing only a pair of episodes.
A categorical ratings disappointment, the show, which drew just a 1.8 adults 18-49 rating Monday, was particularly troublesome in context. In addition to squandering a significant portion of its “How I Met Your Mother” lead-in, it was also halting CBS’ nightly momentum.
By turning away so many “Mother” viewers, “Men” was doing no favors to lead-out “2 Broke Girls,” which in turn could not provide the lead-in CBS desired for its heavily-hyped new sitcom “Mom.” That “We are Men”‘s trouble extended in such a manner made it easy for the network to so hastily pull the plug.
But while “Men” might have been the biggest black mark in the Monday comedy lineup, CBS is not pretending everything else is rosy. Weakened lead-in support or not, “2 Broke Girls” has not been performing like a 9PM tentpole, and CBS made the call Wednesday to return the series to its original 8:30PM timeslot.
With “2 Broke Girls” rejoining “How I Met Your Mother” in the night’s opening hour, re-runs of “The Big Bang Theory”–which tend to perform better than many original broadcasts–will fill the 9PM hour until “Mike & Molly” moves to the spot beginning with its November 4 season premiere.
“Mom” will continue to air at 9:30PM.