View Full Version : Why did Bette fail for CBS?


Hawkee
03-24-2026, 05:07 AM
I found Bette Midler's 2000 album Bette and as I listened to it I wondered why Bette the sitcom was a failure for CBS. Because from the way I see it CBS was taking a giant gamble with making Bette Midler a sitcom star and as we learned with singers having their own sitcoms the idea works sometimes but it may not always work. I even thought that the 2000 album Bette was a soundtrack to the sitcom and was gonna feature Bette Midler performing some of the songs in Bette. What I think happened was that Bette Midler was very unhappy with the way her sitcom performed and putting it against ABC's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire didn't help Bette either. I also think CBS overpromoted Bette and overhyped it too much. And the surprising thing is you don't hear about the other stars in Bette today

icecream
03-24-2026, 01:01 PM
Bette and its 8PM hour leadout Welcome to New York failed precisely because they never had a shot against red hot Millionaire. This is a schedule for fall 2000 I posted that would have given both sitcoms a fighting chance of succeeding.

https://sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=402544