CBS has made its first big schedule change of the new season and it’s not a surprising one. The network has pulled its romantic drama, The Ex List, from the Friday night schedule effective immediately.
The Ex List tells the tale of an attractive single woman in search of a mate. Bella Bloom (Elizabeth Reaser) meets a psychic who tells her that she’s already dated her true love. If she doesn’t marry within a year, she’ll spend the rest of her life alone. The show also stars Rachel Boston, Adam Rothenberg, Alexandra Breckenridge and Amir Talai. Though the premise sounds interesting on paper, the show hasn’t found much love from TV viewers.
The show debuted on October 3rd and attracted 6.85 million viewers and a 2/6 rating/share of the 18-49 demographic. On first glance, the results appeared to be positive because Ex List won its time slot. However, on closer examination, you’ll find that 700,000 viewers changed the channel before the premiere was over and it ultimately lost 25% of the 9.3 million viewers who watched lead-in Ghost Whisperer. By contrast, Numb3rs built on its lead-in and attracted over 8.1 million at 10pm.
After its first outing, it was easy to see that Ex List was the weak link in CBS’ Friday night schedule. In comparison, Moonlight attracted 8.04 million and a 2.2/7 in the demo a year earlier.
For the following three episodes of Ex List, the news didn’t get any better. In week two, the numbers dropped to 5.71 million and a 1.9/6 rating/share. Week three bumped up to 6.35 million viewers but the numbers still reflected a nearly 30% loss from Ghost Whisperer. The most recent episode of Ex List dropped to a series low of 5.18 million viewers.
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The ratings haven’t been the only problem for the series. In mid-September, Ex List co-creator and executive producer Diane Ruggiero quit her job as the showrunner because she reportedly clashed with CBS over the direction of the series. Six episodes had been shot at the time that Ruggiero left and executive producer Rick Eid took over as showrunner to finish the 13 episode commitment.
We may never know if significant changes to the show were made after episode six or if they would have helped the ratings. The latter seems doubtful. CBS has now pulled the series from its schedule. Repeats of NCIS will fill the Friday night timeslot for the next two weeks, providing a more appropriate lead-in to crime drama Numb3rs. A repeat of Numb3rs will air in the timeslot on November 14th.
The news came as the Ex List cast and crew were in the midst of shooting episode 11. It’s unclear if the 13 episode order will ultimately be completed (and hopefully give the series a conclusion) or if the shelved episodes will ever be seen again. Stay tuned! 
10/29 UPDATE: CBS has deleted The Ex List from the network website, an indication that the series will not return.
Image courtesy CBS.
I really was looking forward to watching it last night, but it never came on. What a disappointment… not all shows are popular from the beginning, but you should have given it a bit of time to develop and gain some viewer. PLEASE BRING IT BACK…. if not at least put the rest of the episodes online or something!
I loved this show! Sad to see CBS canceled it. Not surprised though; after all, they air Katie Couric every night – YUCK!!!!
:[[ This was a really good show….so was moonlight! I don’t get why CBS keeps pulling good shows :[[
So disappointed they cancelled The Ex List!! It was a really great show, I even got my fiance’ to watch it with me which is not easy to do! I really wish they would bring it back, I dont feel it was given a proper chance. Will not be watching CBS fridays anymore.
this is really upsetting, i really liked this show. it’s been hard for me to find a show that i would look forward to watch ever since charmed ended. total bummer
I loved this show. I did not always watch it on friday nights, but I would TvO the show. I really would like to know more about Bella and the point of the show was really easy to relate to no matter what stage of your life you would be in. I am married and we both loved watching this. I REALLLLLY HOPE IT COMES BACK ON. 🙂 !!!!!
Just goes to prove, Nina and the other folks at CBS are WAAAAY out of touch with their fanbase. We [the moonlight fans] told them that if they cancelled Moonlight, we would not watch anything else they put on that Friday Night 8pm time slot. We told them that anything they put there, would fail because we would take our business else where… They didn’t believe us. They thought the ratings would be through the roof on this new show… *shakes head* CBS is stupid…. they found a show that works, fans love it, Vampires are popular again (See: Twilight… Read more »
I love the show. It was a fun show for single females who can relate to Bella Bloom in the world of dating and trying to find Mr. Right. I really wish CBS would reconsider.
I’m not sorry to see The Ex-List go. CBS should have never cancelled Moonlight in the first place. Moonlight fans told CBS they would leave and we did.If they want us back then bring back Moonlight.
They shouldn’t have cancelled Moonlight for such a horrible show!!! I mean, Moonlight was, and is, a FAR (like, a trillion times) better then The Ex-List!!
Good job canceling Moonlight, CBS!
I really enjoyed this show! It was a lot of fun and relatable; I was actually going to recommend it to some of my friends before I found out it was canceled! I would like to see the finished episodes somewhere, maybe online.
I am really sad that the show has been cancelled, I looked forward to watching Miss bloom, every week. The show was cute, funny, and unique! no other show had that kind of light fun story line. I hope it comes back!!!!
Sorry to see this series cancelled so soon! It had a lot of potential and could have been very sucessful (given enough time to develop).
I was wondering what happened to the show when i didn’t see it on on friday. I find it said that it has been cancelled i thought it was a cute witty, romantic comedy. I hope they show at least the rest of the episodes that were made.