This TV season has already seen its first sitcom cancellation with the termination of CBS’s We Are Men after only two episodes. But how are the rest of this year’s comedies faring in the ratings?
As ever, CBS is dominating; early ratings from last night have The Big Bang Theory pulling in 17.20 million viewers, the most for any comedy this week by far. The next was the Will Arnett’s The Millers, which pulled in 12.17 million. Robin Williams’ The Crazy Ones has continued to slip in the ratings from its impressive debut, but with 9.53 million viewers this week, it’s still holding strong. CBS’s return sitcoms Two and Half Men, 2 Broke Girls, and the final year of How I Met Your Mother are all doing well, and even the network’s now-lowest rated sitcom Mom is doing just fine, pulling in 7.44 million viewers this week. It’s the only one of CBS’s sitcoms in any danger of being cancelled, but it’s not at any risk just yet.
Over at ABC, Modern Family is still the only sitcom that can compete with the CBS titans. It pulled in 10.94 million viewers this week, making it the third most viewed sitcom this week. The network has a string of moderately performing sitcoms – Back in the Game, Last Man Standing, Super Fun Night, and The Goldbergs – that pulled in between 5 and 6.5 million viewers this week, which will probably satisfy ABC as they continue to search for a hit on the level of Modern Family. But two of their other under-the-radar sitcoms, The Neighbors and Trophy Wife, aren’t likely to last much longer, each pulling in only 4.12 million in their latest episodes.
Fox is still finding its footing with live-action sitcoms. With its more reliable Sunday animated block on hiatus until the end of baseball season, New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Dads all had about 3.4 million viewers, though New Girl’s rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic was higher than the other two. Meanwhile, The Mindy Project is only pulled in 2.73 million viewers, a sizable drop from its New Girl lead-in. The number crunchers at TV by the Numbers see Dads as more likely to be cancelled than the comparatively rated Brooklyn, but nothing is certain.
And NBC’s attempts to revitalize its famous Thursday night comedy block haven’t really worked out. The Michael J. Fox Show had the most overall viewers this week with 3.53 million, while Parks and Recreation’s 3.25 million pulled in a slightly higher rating rating in 18-29. Sean Saves the World isn’t doing great, with 3.37 million and a lower 18-29, and fellow newbie Welcome to the Family is barely holding on with 2.45 million viewers. That last one is likely to get dropped for the return of Community in mid-season, but NBC will probably remain last in the comedy ratings for the rest of the year.