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.
Keep it on! My sister and I watch it every week and, being HUGE «Friends» fans, we are very happy to have Perry back! This man is simply hilarious and we can’t get enough. Please don’t cancel it and air the remaining episodes. Please please please!
If the “star” would leave his politics out of the genre, perhaps I would watch it; as it stands now I will NOT.
I love the show. It is definitely better than any other abc shows.!!
i liked d show though the first episode wsnt very good
Not very funny. Actors are great but… the script is poor. I think Studio 60 was far much better and was cancelled, I never understood why.
Very funny! Keep it on!
I love Mr Sunshine, it is hilarious. Please keep it going. Just when I though ABC was finally going to have something decent to watch, they go and give up on it. Pull Cougar Town instead, that show is ridiculous.
KEEP IT!! It’s a funny show!!! Love it!!
Great show! A breath of fresh air! I loved the comedic timing and the characters.
If this goes into the scraper, I’m back to cable. Figures. All the shows I like that are not on cable are cancelled.
Loved it
Definitely keep it!! One of the funniest shows I have seen for a while. For me it’s better than most of the today’s comedy shows (for example “Two and a half men” ) .
I loved the show! it is simply funny, please bring it back !
funny funny funny. i peed my pants. some of the best characters and actors i’ve seen in a long time. so much better than that idiotic “better with you” . come on. your viewers are intelligent people. keep the smart comedy (mr. sunshine). get rid of “better with you”
I thought the show was quite funny and enjoyed watching it! I hope they bring it back for a second season!!
Keep it on!!