The 2000's were meaner than a dog crappin' tax to sitcoms, drastically reducing their value against cheaper Reality TV scheduling. Given Judd Apatow made a lucrative career in the late 2000's with raunchy toilet humor in the cinema fold, wholesome CBS emulated the trend and traded in their traditions and opted to push censors with suggestive dialogue. The latest entry to join Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory was Mike and Molly, whose drive was to profile a plus-sized, luckless couple finding true love. It sounded wholesome, but the raunchiness pulled the rug out from under the genre, leading a landing strip for crass one-liners and a neatly manicured welcome mat in the last timeslot available on CBS' powerhouse Monday lineup. The only fat jokes accepted were the hearty ratings Mike and Molly delivered.Elsewhere, it was another lean and successful year for the genre with 24 entries, 17 of which returned the following season. FOX Sundays delivered strong, ABC Wednesdays rebooted the franchise around sophomore hit Modern Family and NBC stuck with (mostly) sophisticated entries.
Leading the ABC charge, Modern Family led the charge, stealing the crown as the leading sitcom from The Big Bang Theory. Other entries remained tepid at best as Modern Family and Cougar Town delivered mediocre ratings. The last timeslot split between failure Better With You and mild success Happy Endings. Over at CBS, Mondays reigned as Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother and Mike and Molly delivered sharp ratings. Rules of Engagement bounced between Mondays and Thursdays like a yoyo as The Big Bang Theory moved to an uncharted Thursday. Profanely titled $h!t My Dad Says only sparked attention due to title as viewers realized that was the only interesting concept in this show.
NBC Thursdays stood behind The Office, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock in an attempt to recolonize Thursdays. Community's critical praise saved its town from annexation, while Outsourced and an embarrassing Paul Reiser Show were deported due to poor performances in timeslots. Animation Domination produced hits on FOX, while live feeds struggled to perform as only critical darling Raising Hope returned. This season was a lean helping of sitcoms yet demonstrated a change in tide to resurrect the genre.
Source -- http://ew.com/article/2011/05/25/2010-11-season-tv-ratings/