Tamera Mowry-Housley says "Sister, Sister" was Cancelled at ABC because of "Friends"

[JamesG]

Tamera Mowry-Housley says "Sister, Sister" was Cancelled at ABC because of "Friends"
by Shania Russell
September 10, 2025


According to "Sister, Sister" alum Tamera Mowry-Housley, her hit sitcom was at one point a victim of the "Friends effect" after both shows premiered in 1994.

The actress delves into the subject as part of the new two-part HBO documentary Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television, claiming that the trajectory of "Sister, Sister" was drastically changed by the immediate popularity of "Friends".




"I remember us just killing it in the ratings and then having all that taken away," the actress said of "Sister Sister", which ranked at No. 33 in the Nielsen ratings during its first season on ABC. Though it marked a respectable rating — and the highest the show would ever chart — that didn't stop the network from swinging the ax after just 12 episodes.

Mowry-Housery continued, "The president of the network, I can remember calling him saying, 'How come we were canceled? What happened?' And I can remember Friends came about, and a lot of the networks wanted to, they were like, 'Wow, this show is a hit. How can we bring that to our network?'"




After premiering as part of ABC's TGIF comedy lineup, "Sister, Sister" ended up finding a new home at The WB. Though relieved to see the show continue on, Mowry-Housley said she and twin sister Tia were baffled by the change.

"We go from being on ABC to the WB. I remember my sister and I going, 'What the hell? What is that? The frog network?," she said, referencing the Michigan J. Frog character. "A fledgling network? I remember looking that up, going, what does 'fledgling' even mean?"




"I have a frame from The WB saying, 'Thank you for helping us start a network,'" Mowry-Housery shared, adding that at the time her TV dad Tim Reid told her they were not the first Black-led show to play a similar role in a network's rise.

"Tim Reid was telling me, 'Tamera, a lot of networks do this.' They start off with Black shows, because we're talented,'" she recalled. "Black people are talented, and a lot of people watch Black shows, and they build that network with those shows, and then they start changing."




This sentiment was echoed elsewhere in the doc by the star-studded lineup of TV stars and pioneers.

"Our shows have been systematically used to pump networks since we've been on TV," agreed "Living Single" star TC Carson. "To pump up the ratings, to pump up the network and then when they get what they need, they let it go."

https://ew.com/tamera-mowry-housley-...iends-11807279

[DJM77]

ABC aired 31 episodes of it, not 12.

[icecream]

Friends never aired new episodes on Fridays. Neither did Home Improvement or Roseanne. ABC sure wasn't expecting the levels of those hits on TGIF Fridays. Sister, Sister downgrading networks had nothing to do with Friends.