Worst Week: Bornheimer Commits to ABC Series, Is Week Cancelled?

Comic actor Kyle Bornheimer has found a new job. He’s signed on to a new series for ABC, along with Alyssa Milano and Eric Christian Olsen. What does this mean for Worst Week? Is it cancelled?

Worst Week is a quirky, single-camera sitcom that follows unlucky Sam Briggs (Kyle Bornheimer) as he tries to make a good impression on the family of his pregnant fiance. Though he’s very well-intentioned, things just go from bad to worse when Sam’s around. A remake of a UK sitcom, the regular cast also includes Erinn Hayes, Nancy Lenehan, and Kurtwood Smith, with recurring roles played by Scott Beehner, Nick Kroll, Jessica St. Clair, Hayes MacArthur, Parris Mosteller, RonReaco Lee, and Brooke Nevin.

Bornheimer and company premiered on September 22, 2009 and followed CBS’ most-watched sitcom, Two and a Half Men. The sitcom debuted to 10.87 million viewers and a 3.8/8 rating/share in the 18-49 demographic. The following week, it dropped to 8.96 million and a 2.9/7. The season, which finished on February 16th, averaged 9.83 million.

Those numbers look good on their own but aren’t as impressive in light of the size of its lead-in. Week typically loses about 35% of Men’s audience. Last season, both The New Adventures of Old Christine and Rules of Engagement retained a larger percentage and the network seemed barely satisfied with that.

Now that Week has completed its freshman season of 15 episodes, Rules has returned to the post-Men timeslot. A more logical lead-out, Rules’ return attracted 11.82 million and a 3.9/9 in the demo, significantly outperforming all but a single episode of Week.

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CBS hasn’t given any official indication about whether they’ll be renewing Week for another season but most believe it won’t be returning. With a new deal at ABC, it seems Bornheimer and the alphabet network believe so as well. Bornheimer’s still committed to Week if it returns but ABC wouldn’t cast him unless the cancellation was very likely.

In the end, the network’s decision will likely come down to two scenarios. CBS has been only moderately successful with its Wednesday night sitcom experiment. If CBS gives up on the idea, then Christine would likely return to Monday nights, killing Week.

If the network decides to keep two nights of comedy, CBS execs might renew Week or could decide to take a chance on a new sitcom. In the end, Week’s chances for season two are minimal at best. In the end, we’ll likely have to wait until May to find out if Week’s luck has run out.