MovieChat Forums > Better Off Ted (2009) Discussion > ABC cancelling Better off Ted + Scrubs

ABC cancelling Better off Ted + Scrubs

posted 15 years ago by brandonbradford
72 replies | jump to latest

ABC: Futon Critic reports that ABC is burning off the remaining episodes of Better Off Ted and Scrubs next month.

[–] Korri87 15 years ago

I think it was more poor marketing. I never even heard of this show until I read a review on EW.com and saw it was on Hulu. I never really see any ads on TV for it and it seems like ABC is content to just let it finish and never speak of it again.

Even if it is one of the funniest and original shows in TV right now.

[–] pvt_grif 15 years ago

Now that I think about it, I can't recall seing one commerical for BOT this season, and my TV is almost always on in the background. Except for the bump it got during the BCS title game about being on afterwards I haven't seen a thing. I only knew it was back for a second season by browsing the web.

[–] out_on_dvd 15 years ago

knew this would happen. not enough boobies..

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] LeGustere 15 years ago

I blame Scrubs. I DVR Better Off Ted and watch it later, but for someone watching tv on a Tuesday night, they'd have to watch Scrubs then Ted or take half hour breaks - most people, the people who generate the ratings, don't have patience for that. Since the beginning of the new season of Scrubs, I've tried to watch it several times and I honestly can't stand it. It shouldn't be called Scrubs anymore. So if I didn't have DVR, I don't think I'd remember to watch Better Off Ted even though it is one of the greatest shows ever written!

My point is, even if you like the new Scrubs, calling it Scrubs is confusing to people because it doesn't have the same cast or quite the same humour. It makes the show seem amateur in it's ninth season. Putting that show on will drown whatever is surrounding it, so in effect Scrubs is drowning Better Off Ted. ABC should toss Scrubs and give Better Off Ted the chance it deserves.

[–] mongo324 15 years ago

AMEN!!!!

That's what I've been saying since the get go. Give BoT the 8pm slot and see how it does. Maybe as a lead in, it can actually help Scrubs. Or, better yet, Give Ted the free slot that's available (and has been available for months) since Hank tanked.

Gee... 1 night completely dedicated to great comedies?

Nah... That would ever work. CBS would never get ratings gold on a Monday by having a dedicated night of good sitcoms.

And God knows that NBC didn't pay the bills with Must See TV on Thursdays in the 90's.

But maybe ABC just doesn't have the experience of a dedicated night to comedies. I happen to know for a fact, that ABC DID NOT! have any success with sitcoms on Friday nights.

COME ON ABC!!!! Wake the Hell up!

[–] speller1529 15 years ago

I agree. The second I saw the title of this thread I was thinking that Scrubs was partially to blame. It serves as a HORRIBLE lead in. If the show before BOT weren't as bad as scrubs is now, more people would already be watching ABC when BOT came on. That would have helped get more new viewers, and people are more likely to keep watching the same channel if the programming is decent than they are to change the channel to watch an equal(or in some cases better) program.
Basically, if they change the channel from ABC or choose not to watch scrubs, they're more likely to keep watching whatever they've switched it to, than to switch it to BOT. If a person who has never seen it doesn't get lead in by a good program they never know what they missed (especially with poor advertising), and those who have watched it will forget about it, or watch something else instead.

I say go ahead and get rid of scrubs, but let BOT stay.

[–] oelent 15 years ago

I totally agree.
Also they need to add the hulu viewers to the nielsen rating, and then also the people outside the USA. Now i download BOT because it will probably never air in the Netherlands. But i will buy the DVD box to support the creator of this and ARCTU (Andy Richter Controls The Universe, Loved that show!!!!).

They need to fix their advertise system. I mean google can do it right on the internet. Let them also make the model for international programming. That way you also could be recommended shows. If i gave ARCTU a 9 on imdb, i could be advised to watch BOT by ads. I mean there has to be a way to make a good international advertise system. I want quality shows not stupid Dutch soaps or other crap they make.

[–] Blufyor 15 years ago

Signing up for notifications for the next DVD at Amazon should also help. For some cult TV shows, etc. they create a page because they see there is a potential for dedicated fans buying from them, then they actually let the studio know about the customer interest they've gotten through the signup page. The biggest example I can think of this working with is with Andy Richter Controls the Universe Much more effective than "signing" something at a random e-petition site, which pretty much never actually wind up going to anyone important (or tempting the studios with the almighty dollar).

[–] thibaultk 15 years ago

Finally caught this show in early January, and I'm sad to hear it's nearing cancellation. It seems like there's absolutely no promotion for the show at all, and that approach's translation into poor ratings is hardly surprising.

It's especially depressing that shows like this tend to get hugely popular just after they've been cancelled, when word of mouth has finally gotten people to know about it. Shows like Arrested Development and Firefly are prime examples of this exact sad story - underpromoted gems that didn't get the audience numbers they deserved during their runs due to poor promotion by the network, discovered by a wider audience only after their cancellation.

Hope Better Off Ted's not going the same way.

[–] zainyartist7 15 years ago

This is like Firefly all over again >.< don't think that Fox picking it up would make things any better. *sigh* I guess there's just no good shows any more, my tv will be staying off.

[–] Relevant 14 years ago

Just got done re-watching BoT.I can see why it doesn't get ratings,same reason Arrested didn't or Parks and Rec ratings are not too great.I'm not sure what that reason is fully other than people don't watch TV the same way anymore and the Nielsen ratings are woefully out-dated.

It might just be that Viewers today all have the attention span of a particularly lazy onion and do not enjoy having to think about a joke no mater how brief a period it would take to figure it out.

I think all things considered though,your average Joe is an idiot who needs to be told when somethings funny and gets discouraged when a show is anymore complex than your average episode of Two and a Half Men or The BBT.

(no offense to two and a half men viewers.Unless that's all you watch,If that's the case then screw you your part of the problem.)

P.S.: I like the BBT but it is not a real thinker of a show.

[–] wanderingson1984 14 years ago

P.S.: I like the BBT but it is not a real thinker of a show.

I agree on that totally. I like the show generally, but apart from the plotlines centering around Sheldon it is just another classical sitcom in a more nerdy environment.
It's the classical Cinderella story (only this it's a geeky guy), even the classic family construct is there. What I like about it is that the breakout character Sheldon has enough spotlight so the series remains a certain amount of oddness and doesn't drift too much into the love-plot.

While Better off Ted has/had a love-plot as well, it seemed to remain on the same level as the other events and characters, at least I didn't experienced it as much being stuffed down my throat.

I don't know if BoT was that much more intelligent, but it had so much more witt and always concentrated on being crazy and surreal. It was like in the good days of Ally McBeal or Picket Fences, where they didn't do too much drama but were just funny in a terribly sarcastic way.

But maybe that's the problem, that for the average Joe those jokes like in BoT were just too far out there. Imagining an 8-legged bird lowering itself from a web and chasing a blond office worker is not exactly FUNNY, but it's so surreal in this sterile environment of a corporation it becomes something funny.
So yeah, on that level it might be too 'intelligent' because it needs for the viewer to accept the setting and the events instead of staying based in his or her own realistic frame of thinking.

I can imagine some of my old classmates reacting to a series like that: 'What was that about...I don't get it...is that supposed to be funny?!' Just trying to hard to translate the series into something real when it's more about how things happen than what actually happens.

Ah well, I should have guessed it was cancelled already.
1) It's an honestly fun and witty concept for once. 2) It got picked up by our German Comedy Central.