Sitcom Scorecard: May 6-17

Usually, these cards are delivered weekly loaded full of ratings to discuss.  Given COVID-19 shut down productions, few scrapings of original programming remain.  ABC finished out its Wednesday sitcoms on May 6 and 13, CBS Thursdays continues to burn off its cancelled showings of Man With a Plan and Broke on May 7 and 14, and FOX Sundays delivered its closing episodes on May 10 ad 17.  Another awkward jolt to the season is 12 days ago began an annual time known as upfronts which the networks announce what is staying, going and coming.  Only CBS delivered their results aggressively, handing The Neighborhood, Bobishola and The Unicorn renewals while shooting red cancellation bullets at Broke, Man With a Plan and Carol's Second Act.

Beyond that, it has been crickets besides FOX handing Bob's Burgers and Family Guy expected renewals.  NBC either renewed its stronger players or retired, leaving only Indebted and Perfect Harmony likely to sail on.  That leaves ABC the greatest mystery as none of its eight remaining 8 sitcoms' fates announced.  Save for The Conners, all run a risk factor.  The Goldbergs has suffered the usual seasonal drops, is in its 7th season, outsourced to Sony and dropped in quality.  Schooled seems to have managed retaining enough of its lead-in but like its parent mentioned in the last sentence is outsourced and marginally rated.  Bless This Mess is one of the few sitcoms breaking ABC's overdone family sitcom model but hemorrhaging too much of The Conners' numbers.

Mixedish received it's parent sitcom Blackish' prime development bed and has managed to pummel the slot down to new lows.  Single Parents proved it sinks fast after double episodes were sandwiched around American Housewife, tying ABC's sitcom series low with Galavant with a 0.4.  Speaking of cement shoes, Blackish sank to that same low being ousted from its timeslot for its 6th season.  Though critically heralded, its low ratings have left it in uncertain territory.  And American Housewife, certainly ABC's most marketable sitcom, suffered too many moves and delivered mediocrity after assuming Modern Family's (once) prized timeslot.  All mentions could be wiped out in the blink of an eye.

Working in these shows' favors is ABC seems to be out of luck with scheduling options.  Would ABC suffer through another low-rated seasons as there's little to replace it with?  Or would they trim down the number of sitcoms offered to as low as four?  Another week of mysteries is underway as networks remain quiet about what is coming and going.  Though only Thursday night burnoffs remain the only original scripted options to report, The Sitcom Scorecard will continue to publish until 90% of the 33 shows' fates are reported.  11 have been announced as renewed, 4 cancelled and another 4 already declared their final seasons.  That leaves 14 on deck hanging in limbo so stay tuned.

During summer months when there is nary a new sitcom rating to see, check out the RATINGS HISTORY LIBRARY as it contains 7 decades of ratings data to explore, including the sitcoms mentioned in the chart below.


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