TV & Showbiz

The First 2 Canceled TV Shows of the 2013-14 Season

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Last Updated on February 19, 2022

Just weeks into the new season, we have a second program to add to the list of canceled TV shows. ABC was first to pull the plug on a show and CBS followed by axing a freshman comedy.

Apparently, the image of Jerry O’Connell in a speedo wasn’t enough. Or maybe it was too much, depending on how you look at it. But CBS’s We Are Men is the first show on that network to receive a pink slip this season.

It’s only the second show, just three weeks into the season, to fall off of the schedule. ABC canceled its Lucky 7 after two episodes last week.

Lucky 7 was a drama centered on a group of gas station employees who win a lottery with a ticket they purchased together. Unfortunately, its premiere only managed to pull in 4.4 million people and its second outing, according to Hollywood Reporter, lost half of its first-week audience to rank as the “lowest-rated broadcast drama to air in-season ever.”

Ouch.

In place of Lucky 7, ABC is planning repeats of Scandal, which celebrated a big season premiere.

At CBS, the half-hour sitcom We Are Men, focused on a quartet of guys with varying degrees of failure in the romance department who happen to wind up living in the same apartment complex. Throughout previews of the series, jokes are made about McConnell’s character and his apparent desire to go scantily-clad whenever possible. Its ratings weren’t as low as Lucky 7, but then We Are Men was part of CBS’s powerhouse Monday night comedy lineup, where expectations are understandably higher.

This cancellation will cause a bit of shuffling in that comedy block: starting this Monday, CBS will move 2 Broke Girls to 8:30 p.m., where it’ll follow episodes of the final season of How I Met Your Mother. Repeats of The Big Bang Theory will go into the 9 p.m. slot formerly occupied by 2 Broke Girls and will serve as a lead-in to Mom at 9:30 p.m. Then starting in November, just in time for sweeps, Mike & Molly, a popular sitcom renewed for a new season but conspicuously absent from the lineup, returns in the 9 p.m. slot.

I only saw clips of We Are Men, but I wasn’t impressed by what I saw. I never saw Lucky 7, which came from British TV, but I’m assuming the original was more successful than its American counterpart. But I have to admit: given how popular reality TV shows have become, I’m always a little sad to see scripted comedies and dramas — even poorly executed ones — get pulled out of fear that it’ll only prompt more reality programming to take their places.

Let’s hope it doesn’t happen!

Your Turn:

Which TV shows are you already hoping will get the axe this year? Which one has most worn out its welcome with you?

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.

7 Comments

  • I’m surprised Betrayal is still on the air-the  acting is bad, the storyline is unbelievable-I don’t know why  ABC puts on such lousy shows after Once Upon a Time and Revenge

  • Nick_Payne SuziShumaker True. At least viewers had a chance, albeit brief, to have a look.

  • Sounds like the Lucky 7 show was a copy of the British show with the same premise. Elementary they created, I assume, because of Sherlock’s success on BBC.
    To be honest, I don’t watch new shows until they are at least one season in and have an order for another season. Way too many shows get yanked off the air prematurely, regardless of how good they may be, so I don’t even want to bother with getting into a good story just to not have it ever even get resolved. Take Firefly for example, an Emmy-winning show, yanked after 11 episodes. Seinfeld started out with unimpressive ratings. Star Trek teetered on the edge throughout its entire run. I don’t have a whole lot of faith in the judgment of network executives.
    There have been many great shows lately, though. I do enjoy Downton Abbey, and House of Cards, Orange Is The New Black, and Falling Skies have all been excellent. I may even watch Breaking Bad… The premise sounds uninteresting but it gets so much press that I should at least watch the pilot episode.
    I’m not a channel-flipper at all. When I paid for cable, I only watched it when I knew something I wanted to watch was on, I didn’t just turn it on and flip channels aimlessly.

  • SuziShumaker patricksplace at least they weren’t meddled with & axed prior to a single episode being broadcast, like Crusade.

  • I didn’t watch Lucky 7 because I think there was a show like that several years back. I thought it was weird that they would do it again since the first time didn’t last too long.

  • I’m not sure there are any shows – other than the reality shows that I don’t watch – that I’d like to see gone.  I do know that, for a change, there are some new scripted shows that I am enjoying this season.  What a pleasant surprise! I like Agents of Shield and think that The Crazy Ones has potential.  I’m watching The Michael J Fox Show but I’m not sure if I like it, yet.  We’ll see.  At least I see a light at the end of that reality show tunnel!!

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