What the hell is wrong with ABC. The keep cancelling wonderful show. Men in Trees, October Road, to name a few. Do they have their heads up their A$$?

The time slot change caused this show's demise. I'd rather they put this on than Surviving Suburbia whose remaining episodes are said to be aired this summer.

"Samantha Who" couldn't survive with McPherson's patented "now you don't see it, now you don't see it" scheduling (I think he admitted as much), but then Donald Todd was never much of a writer. I'm sure some people can recall that "Desperate Housewives" wannabe he did a few years back that ABC wisely passed on. "Samantha" had nice production values but just wasn't funny. This is problematic when the show is being billed as a comedy.

But then most of ABC Studios comedies aren't particularly funny. Maybe if they'd get out of the way of showrunners and let them do their own thing and respect their visions, they'd have some that were.

They brought Scrubs back which had already had it's season ender and cancelled Samantha Who?? Wow.

I don't know who is running ABC these days, but they are a bunch of morons! I cannot believe they are contemplating bringing "Scrubs" back--let the show die already!!! "Samantha Who?" was never given its own regular time slot which was not fair to the show, and you certainly don't schedule it against "Two and a Half Men" like they did a year ago or so. When they did that though, the show still had decent numbers although not the ones it had when it followed DWTS at 9:30pm.

Anyhow, I have started a facebook group, "Save Samantha Who?" Please join and invite your friends to join as well.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=84473198651

That is so sad ! I loved that show :(

Let's face it, In the motherhood destroyed the show, with DWTS as lead-in the ratings were triple!

Kelly my point was that a show needs to perform regardless of what leadin or leadout it has. Could it have done better with a better leadin...no doubt. But even with a horrible leadin it still should have done better.

KellyH, I tried to tell you before this was happening. It was a no-brainer when you found out how much they wanted trimmed.

Noooo.. This is the only comedy show I like after friends :(

Gonna miss this show :(

Happy about the decision! Samantha Who is never funny!

So Private practice is the only sophomore scripted show left on ABC.

What a shame that a well-written, smart comedy got cancelled. I'm not surprised, though. Networks are known to pull this sort of crap in favor of mindless drivel for the masses. I guess the fact that Christina Applegate get consistently nominated for a Best Actress Emmy doesn't mean anything? F.U., ABC.

Actually, for the last two weeks of Samantha Who?'s run, it gained out of ITM, so you can't say that it was dependent on its lead-in. ITM was dragging it down and the fact that they never put it on a night with a new Grey's (except the week against Idol) proves that it could have done much better.

What's frustrating is that ABC is more than willing to pick up other networks' garbage that has NO shot of being successful (Scrubs, Surviving Suburbia, New Adventures of Old Christine) but don't want to give the effort to build up their own shows that actually have potential. They said in the press conference today that they'd still take Old Christine if CBS didn't renew it. Yet they won't give SW? a real chance.

"Juan in order for a show to be successful it needs to being in viewers on its own and not have to piggy back on another show."

The problem with this argument is that ABC didn't really give SW? a chance to do that. It aired two back-to-back episodes in December on Monday without Dancing. They drew decently, around 6 mil.

The problem with the Thursday slot was that SW? WAS piggybacking on another show, but it was the load of garbage called "In the Motherhood." So it was a negative piggyback. We'll never know what would have happened had ABC put it in the first half of that hour instead of the second, where it was against the "Survivor" Tribal Council, etc. I have no doubt that the numbers would have been better had they placed it before, rather than after the wretched ITM.

They have like 7 episodes left so buy 2 more (series finale) and make a season 3!

It's all about Nielson. Frankly I find their system to be somewhat archaic as they don't take any forms of new digital media and that's what key demographics are all about these days. The only time I even watch shows on TV is when the internet is having issues as it's just more convenient. I frankly don't find AI or DTWS remotely interesting perhaps I'm just in the minority though. While I must admit I did watch the first 2 seasons of AI it's pretty much the same thing year after year.

and how many episodes does a typical season there run?

Of course i know they got there start in the UK

The difference is it does not take over the TV here

We still have plenty of other shows which do just as well if not better that the reality stuff, Eastenders, Corination Street, Emmerdale, The Bill etc etc

When new shows arrive they run for an season (each week without any stupid breaks) and then a decision will be made then if the show will return or not.

"God im really gonna stop watching US shows, the best ones are always cancelled, i swear US audiences have no attention span or just really bad taste.
Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who, Dirt etc all axed yet Dancing With The Stars, American Idol get insane numbers"

Don't you know that both DTWS and Idol got their start in the UK???

They get insane numbers because its confort food for most people right now. They don't want anything bleak or something that is not a sure thing i.e. canned in two years.

you would think that Applegate being named the most beautiful person by People would be seen as great promotion.

There has to be something more than the numbers to this. Look at better off ted and scrups....they don't even get any higher than 1.5.
How can someone not bash ABC? They are idiots...just simply idiotic monkeys.

Christina Applegate is the best working comedian on televison right now. Jean Smart is brilliant. Jennifer Espinoza is amazing. The talent of SW cannot be questioned, If this cast had a traditional 3-camara format, it would be by-far ABC biggest comedy. I love the show and it is the only one I hate to delete on my DVR. I will always have the great entertainment the show and the beautiful Christina Applegate have brought me and hope the entire casts suceeds.

It doesnt surprise me that Samantha Who was Cancelled, the show never got decent ratings on its own. It only did well when it followed dancing with the stars. when it was moved to thurs, its ratings were worse than ugly betty's. Its all about the numbers. The show never did look good to me

If cost was the major factor here, then ABC better not grab old Christine from CBS because that has to be a costly show as well. Julia Louise Dreyfuss has to ask as much as Christina Applegate if not more and the cast is also large, high production costs, etc. NAOC barely registers a 2.0 or finishes in the top 40 in a noncompetitive timeslot on CBS now so how do you think it will do if it ended up on ABC???

To build successful new shows, you have got to have more than 3 true hits (ok, 4 if you count Lost's demos if not in the overall ratings) to schedule them around. ABC has made their share of scheduling blunders and missed opportunities over the past couple years. I'm afraid they are banking everything on a breakout hit that probably won't come. With their few established hits continuing to get weaker, the prognosis for ABC right now doesn't look very good.

while sad, costs for the show outpacing its performance seems fair here. abc still makes some whacked decisions, it'll be interesting to see how things play in the fall. the decision to continue ted and scrubs just seems like a cheap ploy to have an hour of filler.

I just dont understand how the scheduals work in the US for TV

The amount of breaks each show goes on (on for a few weeks, off for a few weeks etc), shifts in Time slots, yanked for a few weeks to try new shows etc etc, how are so many shows supposed to survive.

That kind of thing just does not happen here in the UK except with American imports. Whe 24, Prison Break etc went on a break there it did here too. People here always commented on how stupid that was.

A long running show is supposed to be something you can tune in for EACH WEEK and know its going to be on. I stopped watching Prison Break after the amount of silly breaks it went on.

quote:
God im really gonna stop watching US shows, the best ones are always cancelled, i swear US audiences have no attention span or just really bad taste.
Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who, Dirt etc all axed yet Dancing With The Stars, American Idol get insane numbers

Totally agree! Ther are some no attention spans on some of these assholes!

Juan in order for a show to be successful it needs to being in viewers on its own and not have to piggy back on another show.

That's not fair. ABC needs to understeand that they put S/W on Thursday's and without new episodes of Grey's Anatomy, show who brings ratings.

KellyH
Omg seriously? Awww cant waitt i hope it ends great. :((

This really annoys me. I liked this show. It was doing fine in season 1 and then this year, ABC put it on hiatus and then brought it back in a terrible Thursday timeslot.

Grrr!!

I loved the first season of "Samantha Who" (who is Doctor Who's cousin, and that's the last time I'll get to use that joke.) I'll buy a DVD set someday.

Second season, outside of one or two episodes, the show ditched the high concept premise of comparing Sam's life before and after her coma, and it became a second rate "Friends"-lite. And I think it jumped the shark in the episode where we found out that Sam's father was a chicken farmer, or a chicken butcher, or something like that, something I could not get to synch with Sam's family's prosperous near-suburban Chicago lives.

I can treasure the one great year. (And, I can treasure that "Castle" got renewed, yippee!)

Travis, I stand corrected. The Scrubs finale did do a 2.1 in 18-49s and finished 4th in total viewers against weak competition. I was thinking about the 1.5 it pulled the episode before the finale.

I think that's mostly true, but you could also, for example, renew three half-hours and either stick one of them after a 90-minute reality show or keep it for midseason to replace whichever of the other two does worse. But generally the hope would be that all of your shows are both compatible and successful, so that is, again, mostly true.

I'd guess that one of the reasons the Renew/Cancel Index isn't as accurate for 30 minutes comedies is just the scheduling issue. Once you've decided you definitely want one 30 minute comedy, you're pretty much stuck taking a second one as well to fill out the hour. And if you currently have an even number, you have to think really hard about adding one more--because you know you'll have to add two.

So I think 30 minute comedies will always be more affected by whatever other 30 minute shows are already on or off the schedule, and that makes show by show metrics analysis less predictive.

There are spoilers that hint that the last unaired episode is a nice ending involving Todd and a ring.

Didn't see this coming. Sad.

NOOOO!!! Damn it, i really liked the show and ofcourse Christina Applegate. I hoped ABC would renew it even only for like 10 episodes, just to get a good ending of the show.

I don't think it was about the ratings at all, guys. As much as I'd like to blame ITM and Obama (it feels good to do so) it seems that the show was just too expensive to maintain. Smart and Applegate must have had astronomical salaries. And the supporting cast was also quite large. The biggest shame is that this show finally got Melissa McCarthy out of that stereotype she built up in seven years of Gilmore Girls. I also don't understand why, with the presence of a hottie like Jennifer Esposito (and even Christina herself) this show wouldn't have skewed a bit more male than it did.

There were also creative problems. Season 2 tried to downplay the amnesia angle. They kept the thing about Samantha trying to be a better person, but the amnesia is where all the interest lay. It didn't have to be front and center all the time, but several recent episodes ignored it completely.

I'm sorry for SW? fans, but you guys need to stop bashing Scrubs & Better Off Ted. This is business, and right now Scrubs & BoT makes better sense for ABC because they help diversify their audience by bringing in more male viewers.

I don't understand why people bash ABC. They've given more creative shows the chance to catch on, and some did and some didn't, but that's life.

@Brad - The Scrubs finale pulled a 2.1 in the 18-49 demo, and a 3.5 overall rating, so get your information correct before you slam a show.

Bill says:
<>

It just goes to prove, times may change but stupid network executives are forever! SW had the ptential to be a classic sitcom if ABC had shown it a little more support and patience. Dumb move!

correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Scrubs and Better off Ted have a higher male 18-34 average than most shows on ABC? This demo is one that ABC is lacking in and could also help to explain the choice between Scrubs and SW being canceled.

(keep Scrubs and drop Samantha??)

...based on this news; is Dawn from the CW working at ABC now??

And if ABC picks up "Old Christine" from CBS, I can't see how it is so much less expensive. Especially since it doesn't pull that much better ratings or demos on CBS than SW did. And it would probably do worse on ABC than CBS so go figure!

And how is Scrubs so inexpensive to produce after all these years, especially to merit the 1.0 it pulled in its most recent "finale". (3 series finales for one show must be a new record! Especially when the show was never a big hit in the first place ...) Aren't licensing fees supposed to go up the longer the show is on the air?

Stupid decisions all around but I'll agree, I'm not surprised. It's ABC!!!

wow big suprise here! (also suprised 'bout Better off Ted renewal)
i never expect samantha who? to be cancelled.

abc has cancelled a lot of good shows in the past, shows started as a success but sunk because abc underpromoted them and/or putting them on hiatus and putting them on the different timeslot.


not gonna be surprise if one day abc placed 4th in the primetime ratings race

Heh, Joshua K, as much as ABC cancels shows, it would appear that it's cheaper to develop new ones. Or maybe they just don't feel like investing the time and effort required to develop a show that has potential (Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who?).

Just curious... Anyone know any stats on the cost of developing a new show versus maintaining an already established show? Granted, I know there are a lot of other factors that come into play such as actors' wages, licensing fees, and all that jazz, but overall, is it ususally costlier to keep a show or just develop a new one?

The cast looks pretty expensive to me. I don't find this surprising.

I'm sure Dave will be fine. It has been an ongoing theme where the index by itself is less useful in predicting average, below average and well below average rated 30 minute sitcoms. But despite whatever predictions we may have made based on the numbers, I'm not incredibly surprised by this.

Wow. If someone had told me 6 months ago Scrubs would be renewed and Samantha Who? would be cancelled I would have laughed at them. Crazy year. It's all about the benjamins this year for the networks it seems.

Urgh. I love Applegate, Esposito, Smart, McCarthy, and Watson. This was a great grouping of actors/actresses, so I'm mourning it!

It will live on in my DVD player!

wow another surprise

didnt see this coming

dave and robert hows this and the other surprises
gonna effect yours number crunching?

lolz

didnt see this coming wow
thought this one was safe...

JS, the real problem was ABC had no idea how to handle the show. Yes, it showed a big dropoff after DWTS, but so did every other show they put there. The fact was, they put the show on a three-month hiatus in the middle of the season, then paired it with a terrible show in ITM. ABC simply gave it no chance.

To Tom - by bringing up Idol, you are kind of making Bill's point. The fall-off from Idol to House on Tuesday was steep at first. But Fox showed faith in House and over time it could hold its own even without Idol's lead-in. ABC did not show that same kind of patience with SamWho. They were disappointed it couldn't carry the night without DWTS so they put it in hiatus, brought it back in a bad time slot for the show, made even more unfortunate by the fact it had to face a special AI when it finally did return, yank it quickly from the schedule, then dump it. That's no way to grow shows into lasting hits. With that mentality, Cheers, Seinfeld, The X-Files and countless others would have never seen a third season either. The problem with both ABC & NBC is they are desperate for an immediate hit. But with their erratic scheduling decisions, they're never going to find them.

Now that it's official, I believe it.

I'm guessing they just couldn't pony up the demands of Smart's and Applegate's salaries, even tweaking the camera format. I want to hear when they will air the remaining seven. Word was that the last one was fort of finale-like.

As much as I like Better off Ted, I would've rather kept Samantha Who?... Sadness. Ugh. I wish they would kill Ugly Betty. That show has tanked in its creative and narrative flow. It's a huge idiot fest now. Even Mark and Amanda aren't enough to keep me watching.

JS apparently it was only doing so well due to Dancing With the Stars. As soon as the network moved it to another night it nose dived.

I wonder what went wrong...wasn't this a huge show at one point? I remember it was doing so well when it premiered.

They cancel this but renew Better Off Ted, Ugly Betty and bring Scrubs back after basically saying the show was over. It seems like ABC is trying to give NBC a run for the money in the idiot department.

bill... old news... dancing and most other reality shows are not good leadins for scripted fare. not sure why but reality works better with reality. even idol can't really take advantage of that huge audience. the few that sort of worked like fringe still lose massive amounts of audience.

awwwwwe i've seen a few. liked it. they should put her in scrubs

DWTS is turning out to be another Who Wants to Be A Millionaire for ABC all over again. Remember how no new show they put after Millionaire could hold its numbers so when Millionaire finally collapsed, ABC had nothing left and was forced to rebuild its entire schedule. Don't these idiots learn from history? If they just left SW alone, maybe in time it could have stood on its own. Like when ABC couldn't find a show to follow Roseanne after numerous attempts, so they decided to just leave Coach there even though it had a big dropoff until a couple years later it finally became a top ten show with its own fan base. But no - ABC keeps sticking one new show after another after DWTS hoping one will finally breakout. With DH & GA in decline, DWTS never that strong in 18-49 demos in the first place and no bright hope for that elusive new hit in sight, don't be surprise if ABC falls behind NBC by 2011. Mark my words!

That is really too bad. Sammatha Who? was a very funny show with lots of critical success behind it.

This is the strangest TV season ever......

Starting to look like the Renew/Cancel index is going to need to add a negative K factor for the show's budget relative to the network's average budget (maybe 3 categories, Comedy, Drama, and Other). Either that, or we all go back to throwing darts.

I feel bad for Christina Applegate. She was a nice looking kid but turned into a beautiful woman with a great personality and then the cancer and the show gets cancelled and blah.....

Sad...I hope she lands another show or something!!!!

Kurz, are you British? Canceled can be spelled either way, but the British lean more towards the 2 L variant.

At least 7 more left and my other fav. Dollhouse is renewed which is like a miracle. Sam Who? canceled annd Dollhouse, Better off ted renewed >> this is a world GONE MADD!!! :)

Cancelled.

C-A-N-C-E-L-L-E-D

It's got a 2nd "L" in there guys. Nice job.

At least we have the 7 episodes left which is like a mini season anyway

F*** you ABC!
They let better off ted crap live and not Sam? How idiotic is this? These idiots run a tv network...idiotic monkeys!!!!

The onyl way this is surprised is in light of BoT and Scrubs being renewed. This shows numbers on their own merited cancellation so the only reason I would think anyone was holding out hope was that the prior 2 shows were brought back.

I have to think that the fact that Scrubs and BOT both pull in a much better MALE demo (which ABC desperately needs) factored in there since Samantha Who just gives ABC bad #s in an area that they already have on lockdown (women).

Cant say im surprised.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

seriously sucks guess i'm back to watching absoloutely no comedies since Worst Week seems deader than dead

Must say, this was a shocker coming after the renewal of Dollhouse. Then again, I guess the writing was on the wall was when they recast the role of Samantha's former boss by casting Billy Zane instead of (the awesome) Timothy Olyphant.

However, cancelling such a budget heavy show (according to the article, because I didn't know it was that expensive) as Samantha Who is probably one of the reasons why ABC had the money to renew Better Off Ted and (deservedly) Castle, although I like to think Castle would have been renewed on merit.

I personally didn't enjoy Better off Ted at all and I usually like shows that are similar. I'm really enjoying Party Down but my favorite so far this year has been East Bound and Down. I'm not sure what the best comedy on network TV is anymore.

Here's hoping Jean Smart travels to NYC for the next season of 24! Perhaps one of the best characters on 24. Well , next to the cougar that is.

David4 says:

What the fuck?!?!

Better Off Ted stays, Scrubs rises from the dead and ABC cancels their best comedy?!


@David4:

Well, no, ABC didn´t cancel their best comedy. As you said, Better Off Ted stays. Better Off Ted is the best comedy on ABC this year and second new best comedy after Party Down :D

awwwww ..... thats too bad!! I hated the thursday timeslot ....

Not that surprised. SW?'s chances all depended on how happy they where with the new pilots. It had one and a half season to build a loyal following behind DWTS. Moved to Thursday it showed it didn't have a loyal following but an incidental one, and was totally dependent on the lead-in. It could not be used to build a comedy block. I do think that ABC actually would be happy keeping it if they could cut the costs.

I don't think that the 7 episodes should be burnt off over summer, though. Seven episodes are the right number to fill a hole left by a new comedy canceled by the 6th episode. They can stop production of the expensive dead show, and fill the space with the already payed for remaining 7 episodes of SW?. So what, if it delays releasing the S2 DVD. It's not like the release needs to be used to promo the premiere of a new season.

In the Motherhood is dead. Ironically back in March before the two comedy blocks were announced, I believed that the comedy duo of Samantha and Motherhood would return for 2009-2010 while the combo of Scrubs and Ted wold be axed. TV is funny huh? As for Surviving Suburbia, who knows? its certainly mixed news.

Pros for the series returning
*Samantha Who has been cancelled leaving the 9:30 slot for mondays available

Cons for the series being axed
*ABC has announced Suburbia airing starting May 27, which may mean summer burn off for the show.

Television anymore

Personally, I thought S2 of Samantha Who? kind of sucked. They shed the "amnesia storyline" too fast in my opinion, which just turned it into a not-funny "chick comedy".

In my opinion, of course.

Sam Who? was their best comedy and they renew BOT instead!! I mean come on!!!! I really don;t understand Network

Damn I'm so mad right now. Can't believe they renewed Scrubs and Better Off Ted and left this by the wayside. ABC never handled the show correctly and this caps it off. Proof positive that Steve McPherson is a dumbass.

So ABC comedies:
Technically Betty/Housewives, though those are more dramedies.

Not yet renewed: Suburbia, In the Motherhood
Surprisingly renewed: Scrubs, Ted
Picked up for next season: Frasier Crane vehicle, Monica Gellar vehicle, The wife on Raymond vehicle, and Modern Family.

What the fuck?!?!

Better Off Ted stays, Scrubs rises from the dead and ABC cancels their best comedy?!

Dumbass network... Really ABC is becoming the new Fox.

Dang. There goes my perfect ABC oddsmakers prediction.

That's a shame. It was a pretty decent show. Loved Jean Smart.

I think that it not meshing with ABCs other comedies may have played a small role in the decision too. All be it a very small role but enough for them to say if we don't get it for what we want to pay its gone.

It all came down to cost, unfortunately Single Camera Comedies cost more than multi camera ones, and ABC tried to find a way to keep it, but ultimately could not reach a deal.

Awards are great but they don't help the bottom line. So even if it's a quality show worthy of awards a network can't keep it if they don't make money on it.

Mildly surprised, if only because I thought maybe they'd wanna keep it for awards recognition purposes, which is the only way I can see Ugly Betty being renewed as a good thing. Maybe America>Christina for the network.

Finally, the thing is it was totally leeching off Dancing with the Stars, and without it it failed. Not commenting on quality, but ABC made the right decision.

Since ABC had announced the burn offs for In the Motherhood, here is the likely Samantha Who? burn off schedule.

June 5, 2009
9:00 Samantha Who?
9:30 In The Motherhood

June 12, 2009
9:00 Samantha Who?
9:30 In The Motherhood

June 19, 2009
9:00 Samantha Who?
9:30 In The Motherhood

4 more Samantha Who? episodes will then be left but expect them in july likely in a 2 hour block.

I am so upset about this move! I have lost all faith in ABC because that network sucks!

Wow. I liked that show, but it was very difficult to find on the schedule...first on Mondays, then off the air, then on Thursdays after poorly rated/critically pummeled In the Motherhood. And didn't it have to go against American Idol once or twice when AI result shows were bumped to Thursdays due to Obama prime-time appearances? How can any show survive all of that? I must admit that I lost track of it. I didn't see the last few aired episodes and didn't even bother to catch them online because I don't like ABC's video player.

If ABC is going to burn off the episodes of Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money, In the Motherhood, Surviving Suburbia, and The Unusuals, then they will definitely burn Samantha Who? off. Expect the series back on fridays at 9:00 for burn offs.

It sucks because it's a very talented cast, but the writing this season really hasn't been up to snuff. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say everybody in the cast will end up someplace. (Well, maybe not Barry Watson, he was kind of a weak point in the show.)

I'll also guess BoT is cheaper to make. Christina Applegate's and Jean Smart's salaries alone are probably more than the entire cast of BoT put together.

I'm sure ABC will air those 7 episodes this summer. They are airing all the other leftovers so it would make sense.

Yes. abc will show the last 7 episodes