To no surprise, ABC’s Better Off Ted has been cancelled after two seasons on the air. Though it was a hit with critics and a devout group of fans, it just never found a mass audience.
Better Off Ted follows Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington) and his fellow employees at Veridian Dynamics, a strange and heartless technology company. The rest of the cast includes Andrea Anders, Jonathan Slavin, Malcolm Barrett, and Portia de Rossi.
Last May, ABC decided to show some faith in the freshman sitcom and renewed Better Off Ted for a second season. At that time, the ratings weren’t great and they got even worse after the renewal announcement.
When the network began airing the remainder of season one during the summer months, they averaged a terrible 0.74 in the 18-49 demographic and 2.09 million viewers.
For season two, Ted debuted with a 1.5 rating in the demo and 3.82 million viewers. As bad as those numbers sound, they got even worse.
Paired with Scrubs, ABC decided to burn off the remaining episodes of Ted in January. Despite campaigning from some loyal fans, viewership hit a new low for the season — a 0.8 rating and 2.17 million viewers.
The writing’s been on the wall for a long time and realistically, based on the numbers, the TV show shouldn’t have been renewed for a second season. Many in the cast have taken other jobs and the series has now been cancelled by ABC.
What do you think? Many really loved this show but it never attracted a big audience. Why?
Image courtesy ABC.
ABC did not promote this show enough. I had no idea about it until Netflix recommended it to me.
Everyone I know that has watched even just one episode says it is the funniest series they have ever seen, bar none.
It’s sad that BoT will never see a third season just because ABC never marketed it.
I just found out about this show two weeks ago on Netflix. I watched both seasons. I think it didn’t do well because no one knew about it. It’s a great show. I wish there were more episodes to watch.
LOVE THIS SHOW! This is the third show I’ve been drawn in to on Netflix only to find once I’ve invested myself in it that it has been cancelled. Others included Dead Like Me & Dollhouse. I enjoy the Office and all of the other NBC shows but I think this show is better imho.
I feel like this show is quite related to Arrested Development: great writing, actors, characters, etc. It was extremely witty, and I never failed to laugh out loud. I think the biggest downfall was in advertising for both shows. I would never had known about it except that I stumbled upon it one night and I was hooked. Too bad. /:
I think its fan base will grow after death, just like Arrested Development’s did.
I also watched all episodes from season 1 and 2 on Netflix. Awesome writing on this show. The stylized structure (with the commercial in each episode, the incredible product ideas, and all characters staying faithful to their original concept) really made this show play out with razor sharp wit. Please please bring it back.
Also in Europe, we love this serie.. Hope i will return someday!
OMG! I just found the first two seasons on netflix and I LOVE THEM. And I am heartbroken to find out they were cancelled before a third season. ABC should seriously reconsider this. I think they will have much better ratings this time around. Compared with NBC’s 30Rock, Better of Ted BLOWS it out of the water!!!!!!!
I can’t believe this was cancelled. ABC’s marketing staff need to be put through the shredder. A little bit of a push and this show would have been one of the best comedies of all time, but I guess they’re too busy pushing awful shows like Cougar Town. Finally a comedy that most people can relate to, and they toss it before it has a chance. Good job ABC
This aired in the UK and everyone I know loved it. We told everybody who hadn’t heard of it, and so on. I can’t believe it was cancelled! The only reason I suspected it was cancelled was because I saw that the actress who played Linda is on Mr. Sunshine, now. So sad. An original and hilarious show with an amazingly talented ensemble cast – of course it got cancelled! When will America start giving great shows the exposure they need to find an audience? Do they really all have to be on HBO, to get a break?
+1 ^
I never saw or even heard of this until I stumbled across it on a TV show streaming website. It would be a huge hit with Australians if aired here.
This is one of my favorite shows of all time. I came to look up my favorite moment in the entire series-a deer and machine gun are the key words here-only to find it is cancelled. No laugh track, smart and sharp wit. I’m watching both seasons for the 4th time around and still laugh at everything that I laughed at before. More importantly, I laugh without the insertion of a laugh track. They trusted us to enjoy it without the cue and I appreciate that immensely. In a setting with endless amounts of “reality tv”, there should be more… Read more »
I agree with Brits, I also found it on NetFlix and was thoroughly entertained, watched all available episodes. I was very disappointed that there wasn’t a season three. I just think that it wasn’t well advertised.
I did the same – watched it on NetFlix and loved it – was great and witty – I just don’t know when it must have been on – maybe bad time slot – against something big… whatever the reason – it was a great show and should have been a hit.
I just heard about this show a couple of days ago. My family bought NetFlix and we literally all sat there for an entire day watching both season one and two. I don’t think the show was well advertised, because when i mention it to others no one has heard of it. I think it could have truly been a hit.
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I completely agree with you. We never heard of the show until we saw it on netflix. None of our friends have ever heard of it. Once we started watching it, we ripped through the first season the same day! It’s hilarious! We told all our friends about it and those who watched it feel the same way. What a shame it’s been cancelled.
Same here!! I think this show could have really gone far. Ive spent all weekend watching the first two seasons on netflix! I wish ABC would reconsider!!
I truly love this show, i can’t stop watching it.