Last spring, ABC renewed venerable comedy Scrubs and newbie Better Off Ted, despite their low ratings. Now that they’re back, the network is in a hurry to get rid of them.
Scrubs follows hospital life as seen through the eyes of Dr. J.D. Dorian (Zach Braff). After having left Sacred Heart last season, he’s returned to help teach a new crop of med students. Others in the current cast include Donald Faison, John C. McGinley, Ken Jenkins, Sarah Chalke, Eliza Coupe, Kerry Bishe, Michael Mosley, and Dave Franco.
Better Off Ted follows Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington) and the other employees at Veridian Dynamics, a heartless technology company. The rest of the cast includes Andrea Anders, Jonathan Slavin, Malcolm Barrett, and Portia de Rossi.
Based simply on the ratings, neither ABC sitcom should have been renewed last season. Scrubs had dwindled to an average of 4.97 million viewers and a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic. It was ultimately saved because ABC’s production studio produces the show and another season would bring more money in syndication.
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Last May, Better Off Ted had only aired half of its completed episodes and was averaging a disappointing 1.76 rating and 4.39 million. Though the ratings were quite low, ABC decided to bring the sitcom back for another season. The network programmers supposedly liked the pairing of Ted and Scrubs and hoped that the ratings would improve. When the network began airing the rest of Ted’s first season during the summer, the ratings dropped much further, to an average of 0.74 in the demo and 2.09 million viewers.
The sitcoms have now both returned for the 2009-10 schedule and the ratings are still terrible. Scrubs kicked off this season with a low 2.0 rating in the demo and only 4.5 million viewers. The numbers have dropped since then and last Tuesday’s episode brought in a 1.8 rating and 4.26 million.
Ted debuted with a 1.5 in the demo and 3.82 million. Last week’s installment attracted just a 1.3 and 3.18 million.
To little surprise, ABC has decided to burn off the unaired episodes of both series as quickly as possible. Single installments of each sitcom will air tomorrow night and on the 29th. On New Year’s Day, two episodes of Ted and one of Scrubs will follow the Rose Bowl Game. Then, beginning on January 5th, two installments of each sitcom will run on Tuesday nights. By the end of the month, both sitcoms are expected to have run through their full 13 episode orders.
While the network hasn’t indicated that either series has been cancelled, the decision to burn through the seasons in 60 days certainly isn’t a vote of confidence. Neither Scrubs nor Ted is expected to return, especially in light of the much better performance from newcomers Modern Family and Cougar Town.
What do you think? Do you think Better Off Ted and Scrubs will be cancelled? Will you be sorry to see either one end?
Image courtesy ABC.
Loved “Better Off Ted”!! Geeez, what a shame!! Maybe another time slot it would rate better. Wasn’t it up against Monday Night Football, that a tuff road to ho. Bring it back, pleeeeeaaassseeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dude I bet you most people don’t know where to vote for tv shows. I watch everything online. I know of lots of people that like scrubs and better off ted.
Their rating measurements are very flawed with the advent of services like hulu and tivo. I never watch shows when they are actually on tv.
I love both Scrubs and Better Off Ted…but lean toward loving Ted…it is so refreshingly funny, witty, tongue-in-cheek humor. I can’t believe it’s not a huge HIT…I think people have not discovered it. It is right up there with Modern Family, and much better than Cougar Town, and especially heads above all the reality crap that continues to air for the masses…BRING BACK OR KEEP BETTER OFF TED!!
better off ted is like arrested development….maybe a little ahead of its time. I loved both shows and they both got cancelled. sad day. I love the wittiness of it. It’s not the same tedious humor that’s on most sitcoms.
I didn’t know Better off Ted existed until I found it on Hulu a couple of months ago. The show is great and now its over. ABC sucks for not ever promoting this show. I wish another network would pick it up.
IT WOULD BE A SHAME TO SEE BETTER OFF TED GET CANCELLED. IT IS EASILY ONE OF THE FUNNIEST, AND MOST ORIGINAL, SIT-COMS IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. I WOULD HATE TO HAVE MY SEASON ONE DVD JOIN THE OTHERS IN MY COLLECTION THAT MET THEIR DEMISE TOO SOON, i.e.ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, THE LOOP AND THE JOB.
Are online/Hulu viewership numbers taken into account with shows now? We only watch online, and rarely watch TV, but Better Off Ted is one of our favorite sitcoms along with (and perhaps surpassing) The Office. I hope ABC keeps this show. It is one of the more creative sitcoms in years.
ABC needs to sell Better off Ted to a network that promotes thought. BOT requires more thinking then ABC markets are used too. If you put a big powerful star on top of a weak Christmas tree, the star will pull the tree down, instead of spreading its powerful light. This bright star just needs the right tree.
I have to say… when I first saw Better off Ted, I was put off by it – it’s so ‘out there’ and looks at things in such an out of the ordinary way, I didn’t give it a chance. But, at some point I decided to give the series another look and I was truly surprised – it’s creative, clever, unexpected, outlandish, and definitely addicting. I’ve been looking online for new episodes, and only found this blog when I noticed Google suggested ‘cancelled’ after searching for the show page. Some series just get off to a slow start because… Read more »
I have watched the episodes of Better Off Ted over and over again. I love the comedy and I have laughed just as hard each time…like I was watching it the first time. I have to admit when I saw that Dr. Dorrian wasn’t going to be on Scrubs anymore I was sorta sad, but I have grown to like the new characters (still loving the old characters). I especially like the young Dr. Coe. I hope to see both of these shoes kept on; maybe find a new time slot for them and get them more ‘pr’…especially Better Off… Read more »
ABC was once one of America’s best marketing operations, now they don’t even know how to market themselves. Better off Ted may be the funnest program I have ever seen on ABC but it’s humor is a bit above the empty thought couch potato mentality ABC fights NBC and CBS over.
BOT should have been marketed by Google for ABC.
BOT would be a smash hit on Discovery or National Geographic or even FOX, but ABC had become so politically correct over the last 15 or so years that most out of the box viewers, who would love this show never heard of it.
BOT is badly misplaced, because ABC, CBS and NBC have lost the thinkers.
As long as networks ignore online viewership good shows are doomed to fail. I’m a massive scrubs fan and have enjoyed this season but understand the show has run it’s course. It’s just a shame they don’t take torrents (although illigal) or hulu into consideration.
Better off Ted is a show i’ve just gotten into and really enjoy. It’s refreshing, witty and has a really good cast.
If networks take the online market into consideration good shows like Better off Ted might have a fighting chance.
Networks don’t care if you watch shows online because it does not make them money. They make money through ad revenue and you do not get much of that out there on Hulu and/or if you’re stealing it. That is why we have so much crappy reality TV; it’s cheap to produce and people that do not know how to work a computer tune in. So if you like “good” shows, turn on the TV and support it before everything you like disappears.
*engggkkk* wrong, you tuning in to watch this show will do di*k squat to raise its raitings, if you aint part of the neilson group of testers you aint counted towards “the ratings” for a show.. http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question433.htm
Neilson ratings are EXTREMELY outdated and pretty much a farse, and i strongly believe that they have destributed their “test audience” in the backwoods of some hick area of the US, because theirs no other way BOT would be up for possible cancellation, and smallville would be on its 85th season
Hey, watch it, Chris! I’m a city-dwelling geezer who loves BoT and also Smallville (albeit to a lesser extent). I have a schoolboy crush on Erica Durance. I also love to watch Portia de Rossi and Andrea Anders.
I agree with what seems to be the majority opinion here: That ABC did far too little to promote BoT. Shame!
This is my favorite show of the past decade and they want to cancel it already… This same crap happened with one of my long time favorites Medium, but luckily for me CBS took on the show… I certainly hope another network takes on Better Off Ted… Where Veronica goes, I go, she is the hottest thing since the british ladies on Absolutely Fabulous… If the another network does not pick up the show, then I hope I can find the series on DVD so I can get my Veronica when I ever I want… I love her character so… Read more »
I am so incredibly disappointed that “Better Off Ted” has been cancelled. It was smart, funny, relevant, the list goes on and on. I wish there were a petition to sign to bring it back! Why must the great shows be cancelled, while the same useless swill remains on TV??