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.
Better off Ted is great!!
the hummer is perfect, great writing, great cast members.
this is great show. bring it back!!!!
Join the Petition!!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Better-off-Ted-season-3-petition/180035502035946
Hallo zelfs in Belgie zijn er grote fans
ik vind het een zalig grappige slimme serie met super acteurs!
jammer dat het net werd uitgezonden op een moment waar een andere grote serie draaide maar als je het mij vraagt 1 van de beste series die ik ooit heb gezien!
Ik vind het super jammer dat het gedaan is!
Wat een zalig kerstcadeau zou het niet zijn moest deze terug komen ik ben voor!
I just found Better Off Ted on Netflix. It is funny, clever and enjoyable. Maybe it didn’t do well because I never heard of it, so I assume others hadn’t either. I wish there were more seasons!
Maybe it was just too clever and sharp to attract a big audience,,?
You said exactly what I was thinking. It’s too too bad that those of us that appreciate clever humor have to watch the dumbed-down version of sitcom that our majority population considers funny…
Hmm, yes the answer, why audience is small, is given by the statistical number of smart to dumb people. Takes a little intelligence to enjoy the smart humor in this show. Still glad there are few millions left of smart people around….
Britney said it above – the hilarious, yet sophisticated humor in this show is second to none. I just can’t believe this show didn’t make it to season 3 when you consider the other rubbish out there – I keep hoping the stars will align for this show to return!
Just found better off Ted on Netflix. I hope netflix picks it up. What a great show. ABC LOST A HUGE prospect by bad marketing and placement. Very clever show
My husband and I discovered Better Off Ted on Netflix summer of 2014 and loved the show. I was so disappointed to find out there was no season 3. I continue to watch the show a lot – I’ve watched each show twice now and now watching for a 3rd time. It’s right up there with the Big Bang Theory series. When you can watch a TV show over and over then that is a great TV show.
I think the show was hilarious and hated to watch the last episode of season 2. I would watch this show for seasons but too bad ABC canceled it. They cancel every show that they air before giving it time to develop this one might have had the low numbers to be canceled but I found the show really funny and super sparatic which keeps it fresh. Oh well Rest in Peace I guess.
The show is awesome. I have so far done 4 repetitions of both the seasons on Netflix. I agree, it’s not for everybody but for upper, educated class who are versed with technology and its jargon. This might be the reason it did not do that well.
Plus, I strongly feel that it was not marketed well. Maybe a tax-haven; not sure though.
Please bring back season 3.
We’ve been watching on Netflix. This show is hysterical. Maybe they should have marketed it better.
I loved this show bring it back!
This is a really great show. I think the low viewership is because of the fact that the people who truly can appreciate the humor( people who work in corporations , scientists) are people who never have time to watch television. It is really sad that such a great show was cancelled!!
The show was clever and funny. The humor wasn’t slapstick, it was sophisticated humor. The writers of the show are brilliant! Bring back TED AND CO!
I absolutely loved the show !! I have re-run it 3 times now already on netflix.