Men of a Certain Age: Creators Give Up on Saving Cancelled Series

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?