Mom: Allison Janney Talks About CBS Sitcom Being Cancelled

Fans of the Mom TV series are understandably upset that CBS has cancelled the Thursday night sitcom and they aren’t alone. Star Allison Janney (above, left) has expressed her disappointment that there won’t be a ninth season.

The Mom TV series stars Janney, Mimi Kennedy, Jaime Pressly, Beth Hall, William Fichtner, and Kristen Johnston. In season eight, recovering addict Bonnie (Janney) must learn to adjust to life without her daughter and former-roommate, Christy (Anna Faris), around. With a chaotic past behind her and a newly empty nest, Bonnie focuses on her marriage to her husband, Adam (Fichtner), and on what she wants to be now that she’s finally grown up. Now more than ever, Bonnie depends on the support of her friends, including wise Marjorie (Kennedy), wealthy and sometimes misguided Jill (Pressly), overly emotional Wendy (Hall), and her foster sister, Tammy (Johnston), who was recently released from prison. Through it all, these women help each other overcome their mistakes and stay sober in the face of whatever life throws their way.
The eighth season of Mom currently averages a 0.62 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 5.07 million viewers. Compared to season seven, that’s down by 21% in the demo and down by 19% in viewership. Despite the declines, Mom is the second-highest-rated show on CBS’ Thursday night schedule.

In a remote interview with James Corden on The Late Late Show, Janney was clearly upset when asked about the cancellation and said she had been fully expecting Mom to be renewed for a ninth year. “I’m sad. I wish we’d have at least another year, for the writers to have that much time to ramp up to the ending. We sort of found out sooner than we thought we would hear. We had thought, ‘Surely they’re going to want more Mom,’ and they decided not.”

The reason for the show ending is likely financial. “There are so many reasons behind it — most of them probably money. But, I know that [series co-creator] Chuck Lorre is writing the final episode, and we’re right now filming the third-to-last episode.”

How is she preparing for the end? Janney said, “I’m having a lot of moments where I’m just standing on set and taking it in, and looking at all the faces I’ve looked at for eight years, You know, it’s really lovely to be part of a [long-running] show because as an actor you don’t get a chance to do that very often. I’ve been so lucky — seven years on West Wing and eight years on Mom — and I have a real community of people that I love and it’s going to be very hard to just have, all of sudden, it’s gone.”

Janney continued, “And no matter how much I prepare myself for it, I know I’m going to be just in tears, buckets of tears, because it’s just been so incredible. The amazing letters I get from people who are in the program or people who got sober with us. It’s been such a great show to be a part of, and it’s so rare when you do something like that and it affects people in a positive way out in the world. It makes me sad, but onward.”

What do you think? Are you a fan of the Mom TV series? Are you sad that the show’s been cancelled? How would you like to see the series wrap up?