Reboots and revivals are all the rage on the small screen in recent years, and CBS brought a classic sitcom back with The Odd Couple in 2015. The new version of The Odd Couple had a recipe for success: CBS is the biggest network when it comes to comedy, the premise has been a hit for decades, and the two leading men know how to bring the laughs. Unfortunately, the numbers for the series just didn't deliver in Season 3. Star Thomas Lennon recently spoke with CinemaBlend about the odds of an Odd Couple cancellation, saying this:
Everyone keeps telling me, 'No, no, it's entirely possible! It's entirely possible!' Which makes me think, 'Oh, boy, that doesn't seem very likely.' This year we were on very late, which is 9:30, and I don't feel like we're really a 9:30 kind of show. I'm sure they would have liked the numbers to have been better, and I would have liked the numbers to have been better. The Odd Couple could come back; no one would be more surprised than me, I would say. I would be pretty surprised. I would be pleasantly surprised and quite surprised.
Thomas Lennon doesn't seem too optimistic about the chances of The Odd Couple scoring a renewal for Season 4, which isn't too huge of a surprise. CBS originally ordered a third season of 13 episodes with the possibility of a bump up to 22 episodes. Sadly, the first 13 episodes didn't do what the network hoped, and CBS chose not to extend the Season 3 order. We haven't gotten official word of a cancellation, but we pretty clearly shouldn't get our hopes up that there's a future for The Odd Couple on CBS.
That said, Thomas Lennon sounds perfectly willing to continue work on The Odd Couple if it does somehow get renewed for Season 4, and CBS Entertainment president Glenn Gellar recently commented that the show "definitely can come back" for another batch of episodes. If CBS does give The Odd Couple another shot, and if both Thomas Lennon and Matthew Perry stick around to bring the funny as Felix and Oscar, there could be a future for the series. Personally, I wouldn't put any money on an Odd Couple Season 4, but stranger things have happened, and the ratings weren't absolutely terrible.
The Odd Couple actually delivered decent numbers during Season 3, with episodes averaging 4.99 million viewers each. 4.99 million isn't anything groundbreaking for a big network like CBS, but it's still a healthy audience for a half hour once a week. The bigger problem may be the ratings in the 18 - 49 demographic. The Odd Couple has been pretty inconsistent in that key demo over the past couple of seasons, and it ranks as CBS' lowest-rated sitcom. Reasonably steady viewership may not be enough to warrant a renewal when the ratings variable is taken into consideration.
The numbers likely suffered from the scheduling shuffle throughout its second season. The Odd Couple switched between airing on Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET and Mondays at 9:30 p.m. ET throughout Season 2. Ratings dropped, and they never recovered in Season 3, even when The Odd Couple settled into its regular slot on Mondays at 9:30.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest news on renewals and cancellations. We can't say for sure at this point if we'll ever get to see Thomas Lennon back on the small screen as Felix Unger, but you can catch him on Lethal Weapon tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Fox as none other than Leo Getz. Check out our midseason TV premiere schedule to see what else you can watch in the coming weeks.
