Mike Royce, the co-creator of cancelled Men of a Certain Age, says that he and co-creator/star Ray Romano are throwing in the towel. The pair have been working behind the scenes in an effort to find a new home for their TNT series.
On his blog, Royce posted a letter to fans titled “Hold Your Head Up“:
Hi folks,
Sorry I haven’t been in touch. Unfortunately there’s been nothing to report. And at this point, since we want to be straight with you guys, I have to tell you that we’ve kind of reached the end of the road. Hard to admit, but it’s true.
If you can think of a network, we called them. Of course, “Men of a Certain Age” doesn’t really belong on certain networks. But we called them too. We called everybody. We tried online, satellite, alternate content providers, corporate sponsorship, Taxi TV, filmstrips… everything. We’ve exhausted every possibility and then some.
I was certainly hoping – actually, naively expecting a different outcome. I thought somebody would pick us up. Ray and I feel strongly that there are places where MOACA would not only be an excellent fit, but a home run. But we couldn’t persuade others to see it that way. And at a certain point, you gotta move on.
Sure, a miracle could still happen somehow. So please don’t “unlike” this page or unsign the petition. It’s still good to be able to show the world how much you guys care about the show.
We can’t thank all you enough. So many of you have worked your asses off to help us find the show a home. To see the support continue to pour in now weeks and weeks later is really incredible.
It’s also hard to express how grateful we are to the awesomely talented 200+ people who made the show. The cast and the crew were not only the best but made it a joy to come to work each day.
And we also want to thank TNT. I know it’s natural to look at it like “they’re the ones who cancelled it,” but a more accurate viewpoint is “they’re the ones who put it on.” Honestly, the notion that a show about the lives of three 50 year olds was on television at all in this day and age is a miracle. It shouldn’t be, but it is. On top of that TNT gave us the rare opportunity to do the show the way we wanted.
The end result is, we’re proud of the work, proud of the critical response and mostly proud that the show seems to have secured a deep place in people’s hearts that isn’t always reached. Like some of you, we feel a little like we’ve lost a friend. But the good news is, the 22 episodes live on. They even end in a good place (if too soon).
So think of us as not as a cancelled show but a “mini-series by accident.”
Because really that’s our biggest hope: if you are a fan, turn other people on to it. We want it to live on. Hey, for better or for worse, the ratings tell us there are plenty of people out there who haven’t seen “Men of a Certain Age.” We hope they check it out.
Thanks, and see you on the hill.
—Mike Royce & Ray Romano
Men of a Certain Age ran for two seasons on TNT, beginning in December of 2009. The first season of Men attracted a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 3.2 million total viewers. The season started off strong but viewership dwindled as the season went on.
Year two kicked off part one of season two in December 2010 and essentially matched the lowest-rated episode of season one. The later episodes did even worse and averaged a poor 0.5 demo rating with 2.16 million viewers. In the spring, the second half of the season did worse with an average of a 0.4 demo and 1.59 million.
TNT cancelled the series in mid-July, a week or so after the defacto series finale aired.
What do you think? Did you like the TV series? Why do you think it didn’t catch on? Why did so many who started watching, stop?
Image courtesy TNT.
Easy answer. This was the best show on tv since the sopranos. Acting,writing….couldn’t get any better. TNT gave up on it before season 2 by splitting the season before and after the NBA season. Ruined the continuity of the season. I hate TNT. Will never watch another show of theirs again
When the show was first advertised, as much as I love Andre Braugher, I assumed that Ray Romano’s character would be just another Ray Barone. Now I do “Love Raymond”. I just wanted something different. So I didn’t even give MoaCA a try. I started watching just before the cancellation when looking through On Demand on Comcast cable on a whim. And of course, I loved MoaCA and watched every episode over just a few days. Maybe that’s what happened to other people, though. I don’t think the advertising fully conveyed the true nature of the show. Maybe a lot… Read more »
There are a lot of factors. One, the name of the show makes it seem like it’s only going to be appealing to a certain demographic. I thought it was a drama that I wouldn’t be in touch with. I didn’t jump on until the end of season 1, but I immediately realized how much amazing it was. I also think that people who hat sitcoms, (I hated Raymond) didn’t want anything to do with a Ray Romano show. Most of my friends-30 year olds-cant stand sitcoms. I couldn’t get any of them to give it a try. And that… Read more »
We loved the show and were sad to see it cancelled. In Canada, it was only available to watch on a specialty channel, so without it, you wouldn’t even know the show existed. We changed our cable package to include the Super Channel so that we could watch it, but I’m sure it didn’t help their numbers that it wasn’t available to watch in Canada without a specialty channel.
I think it didn’t catch and hold enough people’s attention because it’s not a “flash-bang” type of show — nobody’s getting blown up, nobody’s having car chases with the police, nobody’s doing anything out of the ordinary. But those people who didn’t watch or continue to watch are missing the point: Not everyone lives a life of such excitement. In fact, very few people live that sort of life. The vast majority of us live the kind of life the guys on MOACA live. We work, we have families, we have issues with both. It may not be “exciting” in… Read more »
I think “Men of a Certain Age” is one of only a handful of really great television programming available to we “viewers of a certain age”. It had exceptional acting, wonderful writing and not one drunken pregnant teenage bachelorette vampire from the Jersey Shore was in sight! I don’t know why the ratings weren’t better. They should be through the roof with this program, it truly was that good! I’m still hoping against hope that a new network can be found. There are only a handful of decent programs out there and with the demise of “Men of a Certain… Read more »
Television doesn’t necessarily market to people in our age group (50’s) in the context of story lines like those found on MOACA. It was nice to have a show which did just that. I, like many others, am disappointed to see such a well written, well cast program come to an end. Perhaps if TNT had done a better job marketing this fantastic offering to the decidedly large baby boomer group in this country, they would have realized the ratings they sought. I agree with a previous comment – TNT will regret the decision to cut this show from its… Read more »
Best show ever….I agree with Beth above….maybe TNT wasn’t the right place from the beginning. I accidently discovered MOACA at the beginning of the second season. I immediately rented the first season thru Netflix.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the acting or writing of this show. It was wonderful!! Will miss it terribly!
I really liked MoaCA. Most of my favorite TV Shows are Sons of Anarchy type ones.
This is a nice change of pace and very well written. I give it a 9.5 out of 10.0 for sure.
I hope they get an offer from someone. But the December-Jan and then skip to June must of lost people for sure. I can figure it out since I use Excite TV and it shows when episodes are new, and it’s very accurate. But without that and checking on TVRage, I’m sure most fans didn’t even know it was came back in June.
you are correct most people tell me they did not know it came back but I have notice they do that with a lot of show. maybe cause they want to do really shows that are cheaper to make
pouts.
This is such a shame. Good TV always seems to die while crap like Kardashians goes on year after year after year……….. RIP “men.”
I’d also like to know why stupid Friday Night Lights got saved (and is apparently still on the air?!?!) but not MoCA?
MK » FNL, which ended after five seasons, had better ratings and was saved only through a partnership between NBC and DirecTV. Apparently nobody was willing to make a similar deal for MOACA. Possibly because the ratings were essentially sinking from the beginning. No matter how much you like the show, that’s a very tough sell.
TV Series Finale, see my post from above as to why I think it failed. But Nielsen ratings run the show. Can you, since you must know, please tell all of us why Nielsen ratings dictate these things? It seems like using a typewriter today to write your Masters thesis!@#? People watched the show in other ways besides the Wednesday 10 pm time slot on TNT. So many have asked this question, I would love to be able to post to the Save Men page the real answer. BTW, we are still picking up new Likes. People can find us… Read more »
Beth » I’m not an expert but this is what I know: The Nielsens are the accepted way in the industry of estimating viewership. It’s not perfect but it’s the current system and the one that advertisers accept. They’re the ones doling out the cash to have their ads shown. That money accounts for most of the money that reimburses the network’s expenses for purchasing a show. If few people watch a show, the network doesnt make enough to pay for more episodes. Like it or not, that’s the way it works. The fact that people watch the show online… Read more »
That will be the 10 million dollar question of all time. I was one if two people who ran the Save Men FB page and we routinely got posts like this, “what, it is canceled&@?, I just found it onDemand, devoured every episode and now it’s gone?” Mike Royce was very gracious to TNT and perhaps we would have had none of this brilliance w/o them. In my opinion, they were the wrong network and this is why I think numbers fell. People who are drawn to a show like this are not regular TNT watchers. I had to figure… Read more »
I enjoyed the series and watched ever episode. It is sad that it ended after only two seasons, and I hope to see those shows again.
It would be nice if at least Spike TV would consider it……did you try them?? They can only run so many episodes of CSI, after all…..
I’ll admit I haven’t seen much of the show, but what I have seen is good. Maybe this is outright naivete, but I think a good way to close it off would be an indie type movie, just a humble production of the same quality as before. Since the fan base is small but loyal, they could see it without it being a letdown financially. Again, this could be massively flawed but it is an option. 🙂 Either way, I wish everyone the best of luck- the letter was eloquent and really showed everyone’s hard work.