Last week’s was the last scheduled episode of ABC’s sitcom Mr. Sunshine. Though 13 episodes were produced, ABC only aired nine. Starring Matthew Perry, the series took over the Wednesday night timeslot from Cougar Town, which stars another Friends alum, Courteney Cox. How did Perry’s new series perform? Does it have a sunny future or will it be cancelled before it gets a second season?
Mr. Sunshine revolves around Ben Donovan (Perry), the Manager of Operations at San Diego’s Sunshine Center sports arena. His stressful job isn’t made any easier by his crazy boss (Allison Janney), his sleeping with his marketing director (Andrea Anders), his a crazy new assistant (Portia Doubleday), his best friend (James Lesure) or his boss’ less-than-skilled son (Nate Torrence).
After weeks of promotion, the sitcom started off quite strong with a 3.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 10.52 million viewers. Unfortunately, the TV series lost 30% of its audience demo in week two, a pretty good indication that many didn’t like what they saw in the pilot. Week three lost another 15%. Future episodes went up and down a bit but week five dropped a whopping 25% and and the demo number dropped another 33% in week eight. That was a series low of a 1.4 rating.
The nine episodes that have aired averaged a 2.2 rating in the demo and 6.02 million viewers. It’s ABC’s lowest-rated sitcom and, had it stayed on the air any longer, the ratings surely would have kept dropping. It sometimes airs opposite American Idol but so do the other ABC sitcoms and they perform much better.
Based on the ratings, it looks fairly certain that ABC will cancel Mr. Sunshine after one season. ABC sometimes gives a second chance to TV series that have struggled but still show promise. Though Mr. Sunshine has an impressive cast, the show’s been on an overall downward trend from the beginning.
At the January TCA press tour, ABC’s president Paul Lee indicated he was interested in scheduling another night of comedy next season. If that happens, they may decide to renew Mr. Sunshine for a small second season and combine the remaining four unaired episodes with the new ones. ABC has done something similar in the past.
What do you think? Will Mr. Sunshine be cancelled or renewed? Would you like to see it return?
Image courtesy ABC.
I love Mr. Sunshine!!!!! It’s the funniest show I have seen in a long time and we were very disappointed to see it not air this week.
I love Mr. Sunshine. The first couple of episode started off a little shaky. Almost as if they were trying to hard to set up who the characters are for the audience. However, the last couple of episodes have really been witty and fun. I am invested in the characters now and I have really been looking forward to more of Mr. Sunshine. KEEP IT!
I like Matthew Perry a lot. The show wasn’t as good as I had hoped but Seinfeld wasn’t built in a day either. I would expect if it continued to air for a couple of seasons it would be a hit. I think it certainly has promise.
I love Matthew Perry, but this should be canceled. It just isn’t funny.
It’s a fun show with a pretty novel concept.
That being said, it’s basically “Better Off Ted”, a show notorious for its mis-management, followed promptly by cancellation. I think even if Sunshine does get renewed, it’ll be a short lease of life.
Mr. Sunshine ….yay! Keep this show its important, in these times of glom that we remember how we can laugh, and keep the big names on network tv before cable tv, and the movies, steals all the old friends alumni.
Please don’t cancel Mr.Sunshine!! I live in the UK and have to watch it on YouTube but I still love it! Give it another chance, the ratings will go right up, it’s Matthew Perry for god’s sake! 🙂
KEEP IT….THE ONLY REALLY FUNNY SHOW OUT THERE!!!!!
Has the same feel as Better Off Ted……But BOT was actually funny…….so when does Jennifer Aniston try a tv show and fail at it? The only FRIENDS alum with a show worth watching is Matt LeBlanc with EPISODES on Showtime…….
CLEVER.WITTY.SEXY.A FEEL GOOD SERIES.
KEEP.
We just decided yesterday to delete the season pass on the DVR for Mr. Sunshine. It has cute moments, we like the other characters more than Perry, but not enough to want to watch any more. Cancel.
Yes! Bring Mr. Sunshine back. Mathew Perry is very funny! Every show has a period that they do bad in the begining. Beside that junk they replaced it with is terrible. At best, bring it back. At the worst, show the remainder of the season!
Keep it, keep it!!!!
Love this show!!! Don’t cancel!!!!
My wife likes it okay, but I think it’s dull as dishwater.
Keep it! I love Mr. Sunshine.