There was an instant attraction between Ben Parr and Kate Swanson on the new CBS sitcom, Mad Love. Unfortunately, not enough viewers fell in love with the show and it’s now been cancelled after one season.
Mad Love revolves around four young New Yorkers. Two are falling in love with one another while the other two can’t stand each other — at least in the beginning. Ben (Jason Biggs) is a hopeless romantic and an attorney who’s trying to build a relationship with Kate (Sarah Chalke), the girl of his dreams. Larry (Tyler Labine) is Ben’s best friend and co-worker. He and Kate’s roommate, Connie (Judy Greer), don’t like each other but they have a lot more in common that either will admit.
The sitcom debuted on Valentines Day appropriately enough to a 3.0 rating in the ever-important 18-49 demographic and 8.74 million viewers. That was a positive start and seemed to be very compatible with its lead-in, How I Met Your Mother.
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Unfortunately, the show’s ratings started declining immediately. Last week’s episode fell to a series low with a 1.9 rating in the demographic and 5.11 million viewers. That was a loss of 27% from the lead-in demo and viewership levels are naturally higher at 8:30 than they are at 8:00.
The 12 episodes of Mad Love that have aired so far have averaged a 2.3 in the demo and 6.49 million viewers. CBS obviously feels that a sitcom in that timeslot should perform better so they’ve cancelled Mad Love.
Two other freshman shows, $#*! My Dad Says and The Defenders were also cancelled today.
The de facto series finale of Mad Love will air tomorrow night at 8:30pm. Sadly it doesn’t look like we’ll find out how the love story would have finished.
What do you think? Are you sorry that Mad Love isn’t being renewed for a second season? Why do you think this series didn’t catch on?
Wondering where the rest of your shows stand? Check our CBS cancel/renew page.
Image courtesy CBS.
ps. aside from the manufactured out-of-whole-cloth aspect of their relationship, it seemed like there was an age mismatch between chalke and biggs that also undermined credibility.
larry was great and will miss him. jason biggs was too cutesy, predictable and just basically an empty wrapper. as much as i like sarah chalke, she lacked the wackiness she had in scrubs and also became too predictable. in fact so much of their relationship was wooden, and too many of the “scenes”, in general, were little more than a couple of lines of dialog between commercials. need to find something else for Tyler Labine without typecasting him.
I’m not surprised it was canceled – it completely ripped off HIMYM. http://www.buddytv.com/articles/mad-love/mad-love-review-7-reasons-why-39233.aspx
Ridiculous CBS
Larry was hilarious. he had me at ‘heart boner’. but a show following a group of young New Yorkers whose main hangout is a bar..hmmm..i mean Himym
We are very upset that Mad Love was cancelled. I think CBS should have given the show another chance. Cast was great, episodes were great. Very funny show. Who knows what impact the whole Charlie Sheen issue had on any of the shows surrounding 2 1/2. I would never watch it with Sheen even in reruns because I have no resepct for him and I can’t just ignore who he is in order to get a few laughs. So if people ignore 2 1/2, they might have tuned to another station. Maybe CBS will reconsider or maybe the show will… Read more »
It seems almost guaranteed that when a network introduces a new show halfway through the current seasons of the rest of their lineup, it fails. That’s terrible because this was a great show–with even more potential. With all the syndication/DVD successes of some prematurely cancelled shows, you would hope networks start to understand that sometimes it will take two seasons before you will begin seeing dividends. Sad, no more Larry–this show actually convinced me to like Jason Biggs.
This was the one show that I had to watch live, and they cancelled it. It is a shame, because the cast was awesome!
Hate they cancelled Mad Love. Seems like every show I like gets canx. The crap they are putting on for this coming season will be canx in about 3 weeks. Larry munsch was a great character. Too bad we will never know what happens. See CBS? This is why you are last in the ratings. Sometimes you have to give a show a chance.
I wonder if the HIMYM audience tuned out because they held a grudge against the actress who played Stella. At first, it was a little hard to watch her be cutesy and in love as Kate.
Larry was definitely the most interesting character on the show. Too bad we won’t get to see how he tried to fix things with Connie.
What a shame! I loved Mad Love! The cast was great. Bad move CBS!
sucks was a great show. every character was likeable. I was actually starting to get hooked. better not cancel my big bang theory……
Loved that show. Larry was hilarious!!! We’re in the 18 to 49 and tuned in weekly! It’s way better than Mike and the other fatty (Molly)!!!
I am getting really sick….so far every good show is being cancelled. I LOVED this show. I can’t believe they are cancelling it. Shame on you CBS!!!!
it has a few similarities with HIMYM but the characters are unique. Larry is great