Why did NBC cancel Suddenly Susan? I watch it now in sydnication and its great. Did the ratings get lower as the ratings for 7th heaven got higher? I know it had tough competition, but the show was a big hit. So why did NBC cancel Suddenly Susan, Veronica's Closet,and Jesse? it just so happens that the NBC ratings went down in 2000-2001 from the 1999-2000 season.

Probably because "Suddenly Susan" and "Veronica's Closet" (my favorite show) were cursed with the Monday night slot, going up against highly-rated Monday Night Football.

Sucks, huh? "Susan" and "Veronica" were some pretty good shows.

I don't know about that,the CBS sitcom line-up seems to have
done rather well against MNF.

I didn't think about that, but you're right. So going up against Monday Night Footbal -and- CBS's Monday night lineup is what truly killed NBC's two Monday night sitcoms, "Susan" and "Veronica." :happyface :happyface :happyface

yeah, Suddenly Susan is one of my FAVORITE shows, but it got bad ratings, especially for NBC! i mean, after the 1st season, it wasn't in the top 50! and, the last season got the rating of 104 while Veronica's Closet got 82. Poor shows! The bad thing about it all is, that the last seasons were STILL good, even though the ratings dropped drastically.

Whoa, 104! "Suddenly Susan" dropped THAT far?! Wow, that's bad even by UPN or WB standards! I did not know it did that poorly. I remember it being 86th and "Veronica" 80th. But you're right -- they were still funny. Perhaps not as funny as in their early seasons, but funny nonetheless! :happyface :happyface :happyface

I don't blame NBC for cancelling Suddenly Susan in 2000. The last season was really horrible. It just wasn't the same without Jack, Todd (even though that was beyond their control) and Maddy (even though she was in the first episode of the last season). And in the last season, Vicki seemed too bitchy and more sluttier than she usually is. At least in the first three seasons she was kind of friendly, but she was totally cold in the last one. It's like she was trying to be like Maddy was. And that whole story line with Susan and Oliver was stupid and childlike. I mean, I love Suddenly Susan, not too thrilled with the last season. BTW, did you notice in the finale, when Susan gets married to Oliver she has long, wavy hair, when she has it much shorter in all the scenes before and after that.

I think they knew the hair being longer for the wedding thing -- I think that they put in extensions and that was the look they were going for. (But I like the hair shorter, personally!) :happyface :happyface :happyface

for the first season, Suddenly Susan was mostly in the top 5 rated shows, the second season averaged around 7-14 in the top 20, and the third season was between 16-24-and the fourth season was between 36-46. so viewing figures had dropped radically each season the show had aired.
season 1 finale rated 24.6, the season 4 finale rated 6.5 (the unofficial NBC finale- episode 18)
(FYI i go these ratings figures from the WB press site)

I'm not doubting you or the stats, but for that fourth season, those numbers seem extremely generous. But, again, I had not researched that, so your information is more credible -- and more...existent -- than mine is! :happyface :happyface :happyface

thats what i first though when i saw the figures for the fourth season.
but you know what network execs are like...

Originally posted by geekazoid79
but you know what network execs are like...
LOL! :lol: :lol: :lol: Yes I do! :happyface :happyface :happyface

Another thing is NBC had so many women lead based shows I don't think they knew what to do with them...they already had sitcoms on thursday and tuesday too...so it was also a lack of space causing them to put the shows on monday letting them get bad ratings.

The problem with Suddenly Susan to begin with is that it was originally written to capitalize on the "wacky" character (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK4-5RzTws4) type Brooke Shields played on Friends. The first season of the show had her as a slightly off, accident prone bubblehead.

But then, when the producers realized that audiences didn't want to tune in weekly to see a slightly insane character as the lead in a weekly show in the second season. So they turned Susan into a level-headed working girl surrounded by kooks. At that point, the show was nothing special, and it was on a downward trajectory after that.

The ratings above seem to dramatically overstate the show's ratings once it moved off Thursdays. It dropped from #4 to 65 to 81 to 94 in consecutive years.

Why was it called Suddenly Susan? It always seemed to me that the title didn't imply much of anything.


The show averaged 25 million viewers per episode for Season 1, finishing the season at #3.

Season 2 was moved from Thursday night to Monday, against Cosby on CBS, and it fell drastically in ratings, and averaged 11 million viewers a week and finished the season at #71

Season 3 averaged 9 million viewers and finished the season at #81

Season 4 averaged 6 million viewers and finished the season at #94


Brooke Shields speaks about it here, how NBC cut her show off at 99 episodes on purpose, keeping it from being sold into syndication:
mm23-r-zdY8

All the networks sadly blow now!!


Very sad.........

The show averaged 25 million viewers per episode for Season 1, finishing the season at #3.

Season 2 was moved from Thursday night to Monday, against Cosby on CBS, and it fell drastically in ratings, and averaged 11 million viewers a week and finished the season at #71

Season 3 averaged 9 million viewers and finished the season at #81

Season 4 averaged 6 million viewers and finished the season at #94


Brooke Shields speaks about it here, how NBC cut her show off at 99 episodes on purpose, keeping it from being sold into syndication:
mm23-r-zdY8

What made the Warner Bros. Discovery/NBC comedy Suddenly Susan such a success for 4 seasons? Why was it finally canceled? (https://www.quora.com/What-made-the-Warner-Bros-Discovery-NBC-comedy-Suddenly-Susan-such-a-success-for-4-seasons-Why-was-it-finally-canceled?topAns=1477743756803443)

Question: What made the Warner Bros. Discovery/NBC comedy Suddenly Susan such a success for 4 seasons? Why was it finally canceled?

It was never a “success”, querent.

The show was the attempt by Brooke Shields to obtain a long-term television role for herself. While Shields had been in the entertainment business for nearly her entire life, no one ever thought of her as being a comedian or a comic actor, so when it was announced that she’d be helming a sitcom, many people were more than a little surprised. Unfortunately for Shields, the results were predictable.

While some of her costars were exceptional (especially the veteran Barbara Barrie) the writing was uneven and Shields just has never been good at conveying complex emotions onscreen. The series stumbled and by the fourth season the series adding Monty Python vet Eric Idle and a few other actors to help boost the ratings. It didn’t help and by the middle of the fourth and final season, the show was on the bubble.

OPINION: What fatally weakened the program was the offscreen suicide of one of the series performers, David Strickland. Strickland had both substance abuse and mental health issues and they seem to have consumed him in the third season of the program. He died before the third season finale which was rewritten to incorporate his death and had series of touching fourth wall breaking interviews with his costars, including Shields herself.

The fourth season changes were made in part due to the absence of Strickland. However the series was failing anyway and so the changes were also a “Hail Mary” pass in hopes that the program could be saved. Unfortunately it didn’t work and the fourth season is arguably the worst of the series. The show was cancelled and even now after more than 25 years, it’s never been resurrected; nor has anyone tried to make a finale to close out the narrative universe.

The show was never a “success”, querent.

It just had Brooke Shields and a lot of hopes.

Neither of those panned out for it.