Extended Family Cancelled at NBC
NBC has opted not to extend its time with Extended Family, cancelling the Jon Cryer comedy after a single season.
Extended Family’s 13-episode freshman run averaged 3.2 million total viewers and a 0.4 demo rating (with Live+7 playback). Out of the three sitcoms that NBC has aired this TV season, it distantly trails the recently renewed Night Court in both measures but handily beats Lopez vs. Lopez (which was renewed for Season 3 on Tuesday).
Created by Mike O’Malley, the multi-camera sitcom centered on former marrieds Jim (Cryer) and Julia (Timeless‘ Abigail Spencer), who, after an amicable divorce, “decide to continue to raise their kids at the family home while taking turns on who gets to stay with them,” according to the official logline. “Navigating the waters of divorce and child-sharing gets more complicated for Jim when the owner of his favorite sports team (Scrubs‘ Donald Faison) enters the picture and wins Julia’s heart.”
Rounding out the ensemble were newcomer Sofia Capanna as Grace, Finn Sweeney (Impeachment: American Crime Story) as Jimmy Jr., and recurring guest star Lenny Clarke (Rescue Me) as Jim’s father Bobby.
Its Season 1 finale — which will now have to serve as a series finale — aired March 26.
Elsewhere at NBC, the Reba McEntire-led comedy Happy’s Place has secured a series order.
Will you miss Extended Family? Tell us below.
I enjoyed this show more than I expected to, but I’m not surprised it got axed. They DID cancel Quantum Leap after all, which had a much larger fandom.
Yeah same here (kinda predicted it) It was good but I always felt like something was missing. But really what happened to comedy shows these days. Nothing last. We need a new “friends” or “two & half men” (before ashton kutcher) Seinfeld, everybody loves Raymond, George Lopez. They were great, 20 episodes a season & 5 or more seasons. We are waiting for a new one
A mild, watchable sitcom & not lame-silly like Night Court is. The boy, Finn, as a future-priest was a novel touch. I like it a heck of a lot more than tired effort Lopez Vs. Lopez.
In my view the last really good sitcom was 2 Broke Girls which paired really well with Two and a Half Men with both pushing the envelope and getting raunchy.
I hated Men until Sheen left. Kutcher actually did a fantastic job and the sitcom could have run an additional two seasons.
The problem is the networks won’t give shows a chance to grow and gain an audience anymore.
Everybody Loves Raymond did not do well its first year. I remember seeing Romano on a late night talk show where he said “It turns out everybody doesn’t love Raymond”. They reworked the show for the second season, making his brother less creepy and his dad less mean.
Even Seinfeld didn’t do well at the start, they premiered it in the summer and everyone thought it was going to get cancelled. It took awhile for it to break into the top 5.
But it was also a different world back then. At work people talked about what they had watched the night before, everyone had only 4 choices ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX and if you missed an episode you had no idea when or if they would show it again.
Yes. Loved it. Every time I get involved in a new series, it’s canceled.
So all the good shows being prematurely cancelled is YOUR fault!!!
(J/K! 😜)
I feel your pain. It’s actually a running joke at our house, if I like a show too much it’s headed for cancellation.
Booooo! with so few network comedies these days I thought it would be renewed. It got better as time went on, this sucks.
Was not funny at all. No surprise there.
Bummer..I liked this one
I liked the show when I saw it. Very likable cast deserving of season 2.
Very expensive cast. That doomed it.
lol A 60-year-old actor who had his prime series of a lifetime end years ago (and even that drag on after Sheen left), & one-half of a Scrubs duo, is expensive? lol Maybe that Finn Sweeney is commanding the big bucks, because I’d assumed this cast worked for cheap.
Name actors are simply more expensive that people no one has ever heard of before. 2-3 times initially, and they get a bigger share of profits on the back end.
.
This show could have been made for 1/3 the cost by using less famous/successful actors.
Likable cast, but shoddy writing.
Disappointed that it was cancelled. I love Lenny Clarke and the program made me laugh about the little things in life.
I watched the entire series, but I wouldn’t have been back for season two. It just wasn’t funny.
Why does this get cancelled when it’s got better rating than that AWFUL Lopez vs. Lopez which has had a 2nd year to nauseate viewers and have now been gifted with a 3rd while this show was just getting its footing and was given the boot regardless of the better ratings.
I wouldn’t call “Lopez” nauseating, but yeah, this does seem puzzling, ratings-wise. “Extended” was well done and amusing, and certainly a better show, but then I’m just an old guy, so what do I know?
Nope, nauseating is correct.
Political correctness, friends in the right places, more money in specifically targeted audiences, etc. – take your pick. The entire country is driven by a small cadre of short-term investors who demand the highest possible profits NOW! THIS QUARTER! (Who GAF about better long-term results when you can get yer bux NOW?) They are destroying us all, but they’re gonna have all the money and power when everything comes crashing down, so they don’t GAF.
Does your tinfoil hat make you hot in the summer?
I’m sorry but they renew Lopez. Vs Lopez which is on okay and renew Night Court which has jumped the shark this whole last season. Come on Extended Family was great. It was the one sitcom I looked forward to watch every week. You guys stink.
I don’t agree, Night Court didn’t jump the shark this season at all. It got way better. Why do you guys always pick on other shows when your show gets cancelled. I liked Extended Family myself, but I understood the decision. It was the 3rd best comedy of the three though, Lopez was slightly better than it this season.
I am looking forward to Happy’s Place though this fall.
They cancel this but give the unwatchable Night Court a 3rd season. NBC can take their laugh track and obnoxious prosecutor who yells every line and shove it.
Unwatchable? NC was better than Extended Family, but I did enjoy EF though. It wasn’t a laugh track either, it was a studio audience, get it right.
It improved as the season went on. Donald Faison is a treasure! Definitely deserved at least a short season 2 to see if it kept progressing. The episode about Ireland and the one where Jim prepped them for marriage were very funny.
Yeah, it was getting better and better, that’s the pain in it ending as the writing was catching up with the talent they had on the show.
Zomg, I would soooo watch ‘Hello, Larry’ if they aired it instead of Night
Court. The Maclean Stevenson sitcom was the Frasier of its day! Too bad the former-M*A*S*H actor was a POS in real life and drove away the first season TV daughter (the one who without overly glossy lips & a speech impediment). It’s too bad the reboot of Frasier for Paramount+ didn’t copy the HL concept. Seriously, though….. Stevenson was a total jerk (to nobody’s surprise).
What? It is a really clever show with great actors! You are making another bad decision
Best news I’ve heard today .
I watched a few episodes and didn’t think it was very good. I was really looking forward to watch Cryer in another sitcom but was sadly disappointed!
I watched the pilot because the pre release trailer looked good but nope! Great cast but the writing was bad and it wasn’t funny (to be fair though that’s true for almost all sitcoms in the last few years).
Most comedy pilots are not good though, I felt like Night Court and Lopez got better as the show went on. You should’ve came back later to EF where it got much better. The writing was weak in the beginning, but it did improve.
I remember seeing the first Frasier episode and thought one season wonder. But after the 2nd season it got its groove and became, in my opinion, the greatest comedy show ever. Never judge the first season, it takes time to grow, unfortunately networks aren’t willing to go the extra distance. By the trajectory the execs at the network are right (SMH)
It would be smart for networks to get the writing right from the beginning, viewers dropping after the first initial episodes is nothing new. Ironically though there have been some shows where I felt the first season was the best and it went downhill from there.
“…handily beats Lopez vs. Lopez (which was renewed for Season 3 on Tuesday).”
What a bunch of you know what! EF got better each episode. It wasn’t the best sitcom ever, but it was good enough with a great cast.
Extended was fresh, funny and one of my favorites!!!!! I wish there was a TV outlet where WE THE PEOPLE can do a crowdfunding effort to create a place where all popular shows can go after being canceled. Let’s say any show that had over 1 million viewers or more. We INVESTORS pay $100.00 per year. Add up the audience for all the good shows sent to die. Do the math. I WOULD GLADLY PAY!!!!!!
I wanted to like it but it just didn’t work for me. Good actors and a great premise.
Great cast,just OK writing. With more time could have hit its groove.
Thought it improved a little toward the end but by then it had so many episodes which were just inane and unwatchable that you could kinda see the writing on the wall with this one
awwww man, justice for Abigail Spencer! I haven’t watched this one but am such a fan of hers. I really hope she lands a winner next!
Abby…Abigale. I smell something fishy. (I agree with you though)
I have to say that she was the worst part of this show. I liked everyone on it except for Spencer. She was way too broad, and I couldn’t figure out why these two guys liked/loved her. Not sure if it was the acting or the writing, but I was hoping for a rework where the wedding happened, she died, and Cryer and Faison raised the kids together.
I have to agree. I am not a fan of this actress since she started on AMC, but I did like her in Timeless. Still, she just did not fit into the ensemble for some reason. Slapstick is not the right word, but her style of comedy was not broad enough maybe to mesh with Cryer and Faison? Not sure comedy is her forte. Or maybe the chemistry was just off. But a buddy comedy spin off with Cryer and Faison could’ve been gold. ;)
I tried to like the show. Fan of all the actors involved in it but I think they got off on the wrong foot. I think Cryer was poorly cast. With him you know what you get and I think they were hoping that Cryer and Faison would replicate that chemistry between Cryer and Sheen and Faison and Braff. Just did not work. While I love Spencer, the broad comedy that this show was aiming for? She is good a dramedies or dramas. I do not think this type of show the clicks with the type of talent she has and she does have a lot.
Totally agree on Spencer. I usually like her, but she was way too broad and grated on me every time she was onscreen. Not sure if it was the acting or the writing, but I was hoping for a rework where the wedding happened, she died, and Cryer and Faison raised the kids together.
I liked Extended Family, as it got better as the season went with the writing catching up to the talent of the actors. Most comedies don’t start good out of the gates like Night Court and Lopez improved so much in their 2nd seasons, so that should be a lesson to people to not just watch the pilot, or first couple of episodes, judge it more later.
Anyways, NBC made the right decision though as Lopez is closer to syndication and has the Netflix deal, it was also doing better in the ratings than EF, it was like #1 on the night last week for the season finale. Night Court has been the top dog the last two seasons for NBC comedies. I’m glad they’re bringing in Reba’s Happy’s Place as well, as I’m definitely watching that one. I like the NBC comedies the best right now.
I am sad that this one is ending, but I’m not surprised either.
Hahahahaha that is because cryerbaby is nothing without Sheen
Interesting premise, great cast, an actual theme song (!) but the show never seemed to grow beyond the initial premise. It got hamstrung by premiering after the strike with a small episode count, but it was doomed doing so poorly in comparison to “Night Court”( which wasn’t a ratings juggernaut itself)