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.
My husband and I really enjoyed “Mad Love”, it was charming and intelligent humor. Why do they always take the good shows off the air before they have time to build an audience?!
Mad Love–one of the only new shows that my husband and I really liked has been cancelled. True, it resembled How I Met Your Mother (which, by the way, irritates me to no end–change the title if you’re not going to even pretend to talk about your wife!!!!!). CBS should have put it after another show on another night…and set it in another city. Would that have been so hard? They had some really good episodes/lines, and the acting was excellent. I’m sorry to see it go, and even sorrier to see that reality shows live on==gotta cater to the… Read more »
Larry’s character was hilarious. Tyler Labine was too funny for words often leaving me in joyful tears. I think it was cancelled because no one has any taste in comedy any more. Live on Mad Love, live on!!!!!
Cat
I think this show failed because it was too MUCH like How I Met Your Mother. As one of HIMYM’s biggest fans, I tried to give Mad Love a chance because HIMYM always left me wanting more, and I LOVE Sarah Chalke (and Canadians), but I just wound up resenting it. I was embarrassed for this cast; the way they were constantly hanging around in a pub similar to, but lesser than MacLaren’s. The characters’ constant drinking was one of the quirky, unique things about HIMYM. Mad Love’s cast just couldn’t pull it off. And the narration. I’m not saying… Read more »
I am so bummed! I love Sarah Chalke. They don’t give shows a chance anymore.
Mad love cancelled thank you god! When are the networks gonna realize Tyler labine is a show killer. Sons of tuscon was a poorly acted malcom in the middle reaper was great but got old fast good ridance. I hope the networks wake up and quit giving him work same for Christian Slater I loved breaking in and Slater but he’s a curse to telivision you guys can hate my opinion but numbers dont lie.
Truthfully, I started off with mixed feelings about the show; it was overly Ben and Kate centric and I find them both to be kind of annoying (cute couple in love…awww….zzzzzz), but what kept me watching was the lingering chemistry between Munsch and Connie and I started to really like the show as that aspect of the show developed. Baffles me that they would cancel it right when it was getting good :/.
How I Met your Mother is WAY better, but I still really enjoyed this show, too!
I agree, this was my favorite show!! I was sad tonight when i turned on the tv only to watch this one show and found that it wasn’t on!! and worse that it was cancelled! boooooooooo!!! I was really getting into it and i don’t normally do that with shows 🙁 i like the characters, i think they are refreshingly funny. this show is ten times better than How I Met you Mother – which should have been cancelled instead. LAME!
This just pisses me off. A great show, with so much potential just scrapped – at least have the decency to provide some sort of a conclusion! I also feel sorry for Tyler Labine, first Reaper – which I also loved – now Mad Love.
ARGH! CBS, I HATE YOU!!
So gutted, loved this show! Always a great one to watch after how I met your mother 😀
Like it alot and was rooting for LArry and Connie to get together. Last episode set up for good second season. They brought back Rules of Engagement and it stuck, give it one more season.
Typical of CBS not to give a show a chance to get its footing. They did the same thing with The Class a few years ago. Mad Love wasn’t perfect, but it was starting to come around. Instead, they just yank it. So annoying.
I’m so angry and sad! This was my favorite show! RIP Larry…
I am so bummed that this show was cancelled! My husband and I loved it!