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.
It’s unfair to viewers to demand that they commit to a show immediately or the show will be canceled. This is one of the best casts on TV, and Matthew Perry loyalists want to see him do well, but there are so many demands on the viewers time outside of TV, as well as so much overwhelming TV promotion, that it’s difficult for the viewer to make decisions on a show so quickly. I think TV networks need to build a more grass roots strategy in to their promotional strategies that enables people to learn more about a show if… Read more »
I love Matthew Perry! If the show failed it is particularly due to confusion of what day and what time the show was to be aired. There was tons of advertising for the show almost a year ahead of time but when it finally aired or was closr to being aired the less advertisement we saw.
We’ve been long time fans of Matthew Perry…we really enjoy the cynical sense of humor of the show and will be really disappointed if it is cancelled..but that would be just TYPICAL..We really liked Studio 60 and that was also cancelled…damn it!
I guess high-brow well written sitcomms are being replaced by “crap” reality tv BARF!
At least air the final 4 episodes so we can have some semblance of closure!
Why can’t the networks let a series develope? Not everything is Friends from the first episode. This is a great show as was Studio 60 which was also droped before it could develope. Kill the reality TV crap and play some good sitcoms like this one.
The show is predictable and needs work.
Matt can write stronger material with a more vibrant
and amusing three act structure and conflict and comedic
flair. He’s probably sabotaging himself.
This show should not not be canceled.
Loved this show!!! Let’s get rid of reality and back to true comedy!
It took awhile but this show grew on me. It’s not LOL funny but it does make me smile. At least air remaining episodes…
I think characters and stories should be more developped to catch people onto a show. ( like in scrubs !).
Good luck !
Love the show! Sometimes it takes people awhile to catch onto a new show. I even start watching it until the 4th episode, but became a huge fan since.
I hope it gets another chance.
~’Mr. Sunshine’ made our family laugh at itself & our own life situation’s!~
~A.B.C…You really do need to keep them on..they have the ability to pick up the American heartbeat to laugh again…where we’ve all had such unhappy moments…
~Keep Them On, so that we can keep laughing!~
i love this show. matthew perry is hilarious. this show made me laugh. please keep it!!!!
It is/was a great show and needs to stay on. They are always taking the good shows off air. Who actually sits and counts how many people watch theses shows. I’m so tired of theses reality shows that are on. Its good to laugh at these other shows that keep getting cancelled
Love love this show! People don’t know what’s good. This hilarious show will be canceled yet the real housewives are still on. Cool
The show is great! Mathew Perry and the rest of the cast complement in a very well written sitcom. Is very funny , all that i expected from Matthew , and James Lesure “best new artist on a sitcom”