2016 was a year full of stellar new comedies, from Atlanta to Speechless to Search Party, and it took 2017 all of half a day to give audiences its first gut-busting new series. The show in question is Fox's The Mick, as led by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's faultless Kaitlin Olson, and after just nine episodes have aired, the network has made the decision to bring back the Pemberton family for another year of textbook disgusting situations and uncomfortably bad childcare.
If you thought that Mickey Murphy would definitely be losing custody of her nephews and niece by the time Season 1 ended...well, that very well might happen. But it's all going to work itself out accordingly, because The Mick is showing no signs of slowing down (Mickey's drinking). The Season 2 announcement came from Fox's President David Madden, and though it wasn't disclosed outright, one assumes that the network will tentatively keep The Mick to the midseason scheduling and episode count first given to Season 1. (Fox did order up four episodes beyond the initial 13, so even that assumption could be more foolish than Chip's romantic impulses.)
Bolstered by a post-NFL timeslot on New Year's Day, The Mick earned killer ratings, both in terms of overall viewers (over 8.5 million) and in the all-important demographic of adults 18-49 years old (2.8). Had those numbers kept up, we might have seen this renewal coming a month ago, but the show's regular NFL-free Tuesday night airings are bringing in from 2.5-3 million people in the Live+Same Day numbers. That said, Fox reports The Mick is averaging eight million viewers an episode when accounting for platforms outside of linear TV, such as mobile apps and On Demand, and those numbers almost definitely played a big role in getting Season 2 ordered.
One has to assume that Fox would love to get The Mick moved onto its Sunday schedule during the fall, when afternoon NFL games are always a good lead-in, especially where The Mick is concerned. The network aired a second Mick episode on another Sunday in January, and though it still only got half of the premiere's ratings, the numbers were higher than Tuesday averages. But regardless of what everyone wants for The Mick, Kaitlin Olson has It's Always Sunny as her priority, so the production schedules could clash.
Regardless of when we get more of The Mick, though, the fact that we don't have to worry about the hilarious comedy's future is enough. Let's let Jimmy lead a cheer, shall we? Watch out for the splash zone in the front.
The Mick airs Tuesday nights on Fox at 8:30 p.m. ET, with tonight's episode focusing on Mickey finding a new lover, and others doing everything in their power to mess things up. Head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what other new shows might be up for renewals soon.
