Romantically Challenged follows Rebecca Thomas (Alyssa Milano), a recently divorced single mother and attorney from Pittsburgh. She’s reentering the dating world after 15 years away and is scared to start over. Thankfully she has the support of friends who are going through challenges of their own. The rest of the ensemble cast includes Josh Lawson, Kelly Stables, Kyle Bornheimer, Camden Palmisano, and Sierra McCormick.
Last week, Challenged debuted behind Dancing with the Stars, the reality show that’s having one of its most successful seasons in years. The sitcom attracted a 2.9 rating in the all-important 18-49 demographic and 10.67 million viewers. That put the premiere in second place for the timeslot, right behind established The Big Bang Theory on CBS. On the downside, it lost about 40% of its lead-in demo and nearly half of the total viewers.
This week, Challenged dropped to a 2.6 in the target demo and 9.06 million viewers. That’s a loss of 10-15% from last week and the sitcom was easily trounced by CBS’ Big Bang this time.
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While the ratings for Challenged look okay on their own, the real test will be how well it performs when it doesn’t have a strong Dancing with the Stars lead-in. Samantha Who? was in a similar position last year and, without a strong lead-in, the ratings didn’t hold up and it was cancelled.
For the moment, it’s unknown what Challenged’s fate will be. There are only six episodes in season one and two have aired already. Episode three is scheduled to air this Monday, May 3rd.
According to an ABC spokesperson, that’s the last one scheduled. On May 10th, there’s a two hour edition of Dancing. Challenged could return on May 17th because there’s a half-hour slot between Dancing and Castle. After that, who knows? Monday nights are filled with the new seasons of The Bachelorette and True Beauty.
ABC typically shows some faith in one or two new and/or struggling shows a year. The network could shelve the remaining episodes and decide to bring Challenged back next season — providing the ratings don’t keep dropping.
But, what do you think? Is Romantically Challenged worth your time or not? Anything you particularly like or dislike about it? Cancel or keep it?
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