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Traffic Light: New FOX Sitcom Cancelled; No Season Two

Published:May 11, 2011

Traffic LightFOX has cancelled a number of series this week and some have been a bit of a surprise. Lie to Me, Human Target, and The Chicago Code were all canned and most had been expecting at least one to survive. One cancellation that doesn’t come as a shock however is Traffic Light. No one was expecting the low-rated sitcom to be back for a second season.

Traffic Light follows the lives of three men who’ve been friends since college — Mike (David Denman), Adam (Nelson Franklin), and Ethan (Kris Marshall). Now in their thirties, they find themselves in different places in their lives and various stages of relationships. Mike’s married to Lisa (Liza Lapira), Adam lives with girlfriend Callie (Aya Cash), and Adam’s still the perpetual bachelor.

The premiere of Traffic Light attracted just a 1.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 4.59 million viewers. In week two, the numbers fell more than 25%, to a 1.4 rating and 3.49 million. With figures like these, it was pretty clear that Traffic Light was doomed.

Should Traffic Light have been cancelled?

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The ratings for subsequent episodes kept falling and even went as low as a 0.9 in the demo and 2.24 million viewers. The newbie sitcom averages a pitiful 1.5 in the demo and just 3.66 million viewers. It’s currently the lowest-rated series on the network, even ranking below Fringe which airs on Friday nights.

FOX has now officially cancelled Traffic Light after one season and 13 episodes. The final unaired episode of the series is scheduled to air next Tuesday, May 17th. The last episode produced, titled “Tommy Guns,” ran last night.

For now, FOX plans to air repeats of Traffic Light at least through the end of June. In light of this cancellation news, that schedule may change.

What do you think? Are you sorry that Traffic Light didn’t get a second season? Is the series better than the ratings indicate?

 

Image courtesy FOX.

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{ 119 comments… read them below or add one }

Kd December 23, 2011 at 12:09 pm

So glad they canceled the show it was awful!

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Alyssa December 5, 2011 at 3:07 pm

I am so sad that traffic light is cancelled! I really liked that show; I liked the characters and the story plot! They shouldnt cancel if people still like it :(

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Anonymous November 13, 2011 at 6:08 pm

That show was so hilarious. I cannot believe they canceled it.

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Jill November 9, 2011 at 11:50 am

I loved Traffic Light. I’m so sad that it is cancelled. One of the few decent shows on the air that have some morals and I loved the humor. It’s a shame that the only thing people want to watch now a days is murder or slease.

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Rebecca November 3, 2011 at 4:05 am

It so reminded me of “us” – it really hit the nail on the head as far as relationships. It took me a few episodes to like all the characters – they were all great!

I was so pissed when it was scratched -

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Cbark October 11, 2011 at 6:31 pm

This show was smart and funny. The actors were hilarious and likeable. I’m sorry it has been cancelled.

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nika October 10, 2011 at 4:02 pm

so, how does “popular demand” go about bringing a show back? It’s happened, but I don’t know how. I’ve been waiting for this show all summer, and only now checked to see if it’d been renewed, since i was so sure it had been. that is, until i couldn’t find it to PVR.

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jim October 6, 2011 at 6:45 pm

Traffic Light was our favorite new show, my wife and I had it DVR’d every week and looked forward to watching it. It was one of those shows that made me laugh as hard as a really good comedy movie, all the way through the episode, every episode. The whole cast was very talented with perfect timing, especially Adam, and the writing was so good. We were wondering what happened to it, we couldn’t believe it would be canceled.

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Jordan October 2, 2011 at 6:35 am

Agree with the comments listed above..found this on Hulu as a fluke had never heard of it before but almost immediately it became the show I waited for ever week. This is an example of why the networks need to include Hulu/iTunes etc in ratings. Everyone I know either downloads or Tivo’s television – none of them watch a show on the day it actually airs. Wondering when the networks will actually “get” that.

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JT September 23, 2011 at 5:02 am

I notice that TV shows with some semblance of intelligence usually don’t last very long. Maybe there’s just no demand for it. People prefer to watch brainless reality shows or very base comedy.

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gmoney September 18, 2011 at 5:18 pm

I totally agree. I had given up on sitcoms until Traffic Light came out. So bummed. I guess the demo was really only 30-40 year olds who could relate to and appreciate the Gen X and Y humor.

Bring it back!

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Julian September 16, 2011 at 1:09 am

I totally fell in love with this show after 2-3 episodes. Which is also when I realized it would not survive the first season. FOX did the most terrible job at promoting the show. I came across it completely randomly on hulu and nobody else I have recommended this show to had ever heard of it. However, everybody who started watching it loved it just as much as I do.

Traffic Light is easily one of the most intelligent shows I have ever seen. It’s not a scientific documentary, but the psychological insight to the individual characters, the way they interact with each other, the way relationships work is nothing short of brilliant. No bovine stupidity followed by an infantile sex jokes followed by an applauding studio audience. Traffic Light was never meant to be entertaining to the lightly intellected, but FOX targeted just that clientel by airing it after Glee. I could hardly have thought of a more inappropriate time slot for the show.

Had Fox known their customer base, had they marketed the show to the right audience and given that show a little while to develop, it could have easily become the next Frasier or Seinfeld.

I am honestly quite exasperated the show got cancelled; even more so seeing all these new shows starting this winter that excel each other in both stupidity and lameness. If I were an alien, trying to figure out what life on earth is like based on the current tv programming, I would be quite disgusted and would not want to visit. But since I’m a human and know that not everybody sucks, just that those who don’t are deprived of adequate entertainment and medial representation due to the incompetent program managers of FOX, I know whom to hate and feel disgusted about.

I took the liberty to create a ”Bring Traffic Light Back” Facebook group. Please everybody ‘like’ and make everybody you know ‘like’ the page to show FOX how useless the Nielsen rating system is and that we need that show back to bring some quality tv back to the international tv landscape.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bring-Traffic-Light-tv-series-Back/161756303909992?v=wall

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throck September 15, 2011 at 6:27 pm

BS! It was a great show! I’m so sad it was canceled! Bring it back!

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mike September 14, 2011 at 1:16 am

Bummer! An intelligent, well written, well cast, and well acted show. Very disappointing news.

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cole September 13, 2011 at 4:47 pm

I wish they would make a second season it was so funny! I am sad that fox had to cancel it :(

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