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.
Great Show, sadly i discovered it after it was cancelled.
i think it kicks Office’s ass.
Yes thanks to Netflix we discovered this. Great show. And it was destined for an early death….It was witty, well written, with a great cast. Just the opposite of the reality trash “thrown up” on TV today.
I am highly disappointed this show didn’t take off. I just found out about it and burned through the two seasons. it was very funny and I am sad that the comedy dose’t continue.
Great job to all those who were part of the series. you brought laughter into my life. \
Thank you
Also for those of us who do not have PVR’s we scower the net to find the shows we want.
Pretty sad we have:
CSI
CSI: NY
CSI:Miami
NCIS
Bones
Criminal Minds
Law and Order
Law and Order :SVU
Law and Order:Criminal Intent
Law and Order:Los Angeles
Body of Proof
Burn Notice
And many more…
But yet shows like Arrested Development and Better Off Ted fail! Maybe, if they added laugh tracks people would know when to laugh. (Yes, We need to be told when we are supposed to laugh). Awesome!
I’m so sorry… If I knew of this show when it on TV I would have been there to watch it every week but I never knew of it and just now finding on netflix over the weekend I burned through the two seasons and wished there was more. =(
DAMN YOU ABC, BRING IT BACK!!
I thought this show was genius. It captivated me from the first episode and I was distraught to see that there were only 2 seasons. I found it on Netflix on the search for my next favorite show. It did not disappoint. However, ABC did by canceling a true gem of a show.
It’s disgusting that so many good shows get cancelled these days because the general public would rather watch drivel like Pop Idol. Well said Sandor, I completely agree and it frustrates me. This show was hilarious, brilliant and made my day when I needed a pick-me-up. What’s more frustrating is that I live in the UK, so I can’t download Season 2 from Amazon or iTunes and I can’t subscribe to Netflix. If there’s a UK equivalent, I don’t know about it, so I can’t even enjoy the few episodes of this great show that they did make 🙁 It… Read more »
Netflix should buy the rights to the show and start making it again. Especially if Netflix is serious about becoming a competitor to Showtime and HBO.
I’d say poor marketing on the part ABC was to blame. This show is one of the funniest I’ve ever seen and I watch a lot of tv. I had never heard of it until I saw it on Netflix. I’d be willing to bet if I asked, 9 of 10 of my friends would say they have never heard of it either. I think ABC really screwed up big time canceling this show.
I take it from the time of these posts that we all have Netflix subscriptions.
This show was utterly amazing. I had no idea that it had such horrible ratings! But I guess that in the end, we are still searching for that perfect show that everybody loves. I was almost certain that this would make it 🙁
i dont watch alot of tv because of the crap on these days, but this show was hilarious. Sad stuff
I’m highly educated..I enjoyed the show…sad to see it end 🙁
i think abc should rethink their decision to cancel the show, it’s pretty hilarious. stupid abc
Nobody worth a damn was watching ABC… Who has time?
The reason why it did not attract big audience is very simple:
People with higher education watch less and less TV – and it was addressed to white collars rather than blue (who might not even understand some of the jokes in that even). Broadcast over the internet and you will get the masses. It is not a secret that TV is falling these days, most watchers are amongst the elderly and people with less education usually – typically in remote areas where internet is quite underdeveloped.