View Full Version : Why did Fox cancel MWC in 1997


TMC
07-08-2019, 06:01 AM
Married...with Children as I think everybody knows, never (https://popculture.com/tv-shows/2019/06/21/christina-applegate-reveals-surprising-way-discovered-married-with-children-canceled/) got a proper series finale (http://www.bundyology.com/hpg/1124.html).

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ae/7a/14/ae7a14cc733fffd426a66e1bbb1ec3fe.jpg

If you ask Ed O'Neill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQXsoZn9_RE), he'll tell you that MWC came to an end (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/married-with-children-cancellation_n_57e4292ce4b0e80b1ba0ef36) after 11 seasons (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-04-19-ca-50289-story.html) because smaller affiliates who bought the show for syndication (which may have been about a $1 million an episode) couldn't take too many more episodes. And MWC produced about 258 episodes. These affiliates didn't need that many episodes to cycle when they could just cycle an estimate of 100 a year. So they began to beg Sony (who produced MWC) and Fox (https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/458361-why-married-children-cancelled.html#post6837354) to stop (https://www.fame10.com/entertainment/6-stars-who-were-blindsided-by-their-shows-cancellation/) making new episodes.

dee2364
07-08-2019, 01:36 PM
The show was canceled most likely because it absolutely sucked in the last two seasons and the ratings were abysmal.

TMC
07-09-2019, 03:59 AM
The show was canceled most likely because it absolutely sucked in the last two seasons and the ratings were abysmal.

Well, bare in mind that Fox (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%9397_United_States_network_television_schedule) probably didn't do the show any favors. They moved MWC (https://jacksonupperco.com/2017/02/07/the-seven-best-married-with-children-episodes-of-season-eleven/) out of its long time and cushy Sunday 9 p.m. (Fox was likely making a preemptive move due to them believing that the show was running out of gas) slot to launch a new show there. They may have moved the show to Saturday night (back when Saturday nights were still being programmed regularly with scripted shows) that fall because Fox might've felt they wanted to get people to stay home and look at that. When it didn't work, they moved it again to Monday nights.

James28
04-23-2020, 02:26 AM
Considering the abruptness of Married... with Children's cancellation, how come that full-page ad still says "THE SERIES FINALE!"? Strange. I think if FOX-TV had given MwC advance notice to end at season 11, they should have done it when they moved it to Monday nights.