The past couple seasons have seen ABC’s sitcom Happy Endings emerge as one of the best comedies on network TV, but unfortunately, the show’s ratings have taken a hit this year after the network scheduled it on the busiest comedy night of the season by putting it head-to-head with hits like Fox’s New Girl and NBC’s Go On. ABC started airing extra episodes of Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B at 10pm on Sundays this week (in addition to their regular Tuesday slot) to burn off the remaining episodes to clear the Tuesday timeslot for Dancing with the Stars’ return in late March. The first Sunday episode aired this week, and the ratings aren’t good. The episode earned Happy Endings’ worst audience yet: just 2.6 million viewers.
Vulture’s Joe Adalian points out that part of the problem this week ratings-wise is that comedies in the 10pm hour have rarely worked and that ABC didn’t promote Happy Endings or Don’t Trust the B’s new timeslots at all. Adalian hypothesizes that there’s a chance the network and the studio will ignore the sliding ratings and pick up the show just to get it to syndication next season since it’ll have 57 episodes in the bank by then and only needs to get to 80ish for a lucrative syndication deal. Also, it’s possible that another network - like TBS, who just picked up ABC’s Cougar Town - or a streaming video service like Netflix or Amazon Prime will buy another season of Happy Endings if ABC cancels it. Either way, it’s time to start up that internet campaign to save the show, everybody.