To very little surprise, the CW has cancelled one of its few remaining sitcoms, The Game. Is this the end for the series or could it still return?
Created by Mara Brock Akil, The Game began as a spin-off of Akil’s long-running comedy, Girlfriends. The series centers around a first year medical student (Tia Mowry) who chooses to follow her pro-football boyfriend (Pooch Hall) to San Diego. Others in the cast include Brittany Daniel, Coby Bell, Hosea Chanchez and Wendy Raquel Robinson.
The first sitcom to debut on the CW network, The Game averaged 2.3 million viewers in season one. For season two, the ratings dropped to 2.07 million and a .96 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This season, it’s fallen to an average of 1.68 million viewers and a tiny 0.7 rating in the demo, in part because it was given a Friday night timeslot.
The CW is essentially getting out of the sitcom business and has cancelled The Game after 64 episodes. There had been talks about changing the show’s format to an hour-long dramady, to make it more compatible with the network’s other programming. That was seen as a long-shot at best and actually would have created its own set of challenges for syndication.
Though The Game only has 64 episodes, BET recently signed a syndication deal to air the first two seasons and season three will be added this Fall. To increase the show’s number of episodes, there have been discussions between the cable channel and CBS (the show’s studio) about co-funding original episodes. The deal would likely come with some cost-cutting measures.
There’s been no further word on the potential deal with BET so, as of right now, “The Wedding Episode” is the series’ last.
If The Game isn’t rescued from cancellation, are you satisfied with the way the sitcom ended — with Melanie and Derwin finally getting married?
Image courtesy CW.
I Well I guess I’ll read a book or two now since there’s nothing on tv I’ll just wait for tyler perry and or kathy hughes, ophrah and others to get together and start a network that is interested in producing shows that interest and entertain me. So bye bye CW.
I am so pissed that this show is cancelled along with other African American shows. I remember watching the show when it first started, then I stopped. It was the excitement in my girlfriends voice when she described the lastest events that got me back to watching it again. Now CW is cancelling the show???? I think we should boycott the ntwk and petition TvOne or BET to pick it up.
That is nothing but B.S. The Game was a really good good good show, The CW sucks i am still upset that they took Girlfiends off the air and now the game. They need to get it together..
I loved the show, and I know it would definitely have received more ratings for a season 4 now because so many ppl have come to learn about the show after catching since BET airs the first two seasons.
I would have to agree and I hate to be repetitive but I feel that they have dumped ALL the African American shows. It was CLEAR once they kicked this show to Friday nights this was the next step!! I really loved watching this show during the week and then they put it on Friday nights which is a hard time to catch the show that I had to go back to the VHS just to tape the show to watch it later. But they knew what they were doing. It’s pretty obvious most of the population that view this… Read more »
I am so upset, this show was great, and someone should pick it up!
I AM SOOO PISSED AT CW!!! Im soo tired of them taking away the best African American tv shows. First Girlfriends and now Everbody Hates Chris and The Game!!! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! I bet if CW was still UPN, WE WOULD HAVE ALL OUR BLACK SITCOMS STILL ON THE AIR!!!!
EVERYONE NEEDS TO BOYCOTT CW!!! THERE’S SHOWS ON THAT REALLY NEED TO BE CANCELLED OTHER THAN THE GAME!!!
I am a extremely disappointment that The Game has been cancelled! From the moment Melanie and Derwin stepped foot on the set of Girlfriends I have not stopped watching them or the show. That show means the world to me because I can relate to many issues and topic that were discussed on that show. I am hoping that one of the other networks will pick up that wonderfully entertaining show. Mara Brock Akil you are an amazing writer and please keep up the good work. I have all faith that you will somehow save my favorite show. As for… Read more »
I’m upset that The Game will be cancelled. I have watched it faithfully since the first season, right along the time Girlfriends was unfairly cancelled. I think that it was very wrong that the show was put in a Friday slot and the promotion/advertising for the show was cut. The Game is the only reason that I continue to turn to the CW….so if the show is cancelled….the channel will be non-existent to me!!
This is so typical. I knew when they moved the show to Fridays this would be the next step. I am really disgusted of how little concern is giving to African American shows by this network. They rarely advertised for The Game all the while oversaturating the network with advertisements for Gossip Girl and 90210. BTW 90210 is so not good! It should be getting cancelled. Black and Hispanic viewers should boycott this network. How many of their shows feature Black or Hispanic main characters???
PLEASE BRING IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE GAME IS THE REALIST SHOW ON TV NOW DAYS. EVERYONE I KNOW CAN RELATE TO IT BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE MONEY THEY HAVE PROBLEMS JUST LIKE US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM SOOOOOOOOOOOO DISAPPOINTED TO HEAR THIS.
This is a hot mess! CW is only hurting itself. I have no reason to watch this network any longer.
its simple just make a few final episodes to try and close up some of the unanswered questions and if the ratings beging to increase then continue the show and if they don’t, at least the viewers would be happier with the final result.
please please bring the game back. its the only show that i watch. it still has so many stories it can tell. this show has millions of devoted fans. the show was doing great until they started moving it around and making it go to fridays. i dont care where it goes i just want it com back.
This is not fair – why would you cancel a show that has so many unanswered questions? This show has millions of viewers including myself. CW messed up when they changed the time slot. Any show on any network that gets the Friday night time slot isn’t far from cancellation. This is a great show, like a late night soap opera for those of us who can’t watch soaps during the day. Please don’t cancel this show.