The Millers may have gotten a shot at a second season, but it looks like CBS has decided not to see that through beyond the handful of episodes that have already aired this fall. The Will Arnett comedy has been cancelled.
Deadline reported the news tonight. While the site states that The Millers will shoot one more episode, they also say that CBS will likely pull the show from the schedule. Perhaps the plan is to air the remaining episodes at a later date, but as of right now that remains unclear. And we'll have to wait and see what CBS decides to do with the half-hour slot between 2 Broke Girls and Scorpion, assuming they do pull The Millers from the schedule immediately.
Created by Raising Hope's Greg Garcia, The Millers stars Will Arnett, Margo Martindale and J.B. Smoove and centers on Arnett's character Nathan Miller and his family. The original premise of the multi-camera comedy from the start had Nathan announcing to his family that he'd gotten divorced, after which his parents end up splitting up after more than four decades of marriage. The series premiered its second season midway through October and introduced sitcom veteran Sean Hayes as a series regular.
Between its cast, its creator and its proximity to The Big Bang Theory, The Millers had a lot going for it in 2013 when it first debuted, and it showed in the ratings. The series debuted to an audience of 13 million viewers, after which the viewership dipped a bit but seemed to linger in the 10 million viewer range. It hasn't been doing so well since its move from Thursday to Monday. A Big Bang Theory lead-in likely goes a long way, and while 2 Broke Girls does ok, the comedy delivers less than half the viewers as TBBT.
The Millers joins a handful of other comedies that have been canceled this fall, including Selfie (ABC), Manhattan Love Story (ABC), A to Z (NBC) and Bad Judge (NBC). (Fox's Mulaney hasn't been cancelled yet, but with the last couple of episodes failing to surpass 2 million viewers, it seems like it's only a matter of time.) The difference between those comedies and The Millers, is that they were all new. CBS made a choice to follow through with a second season of The Millers, and after a move to Monday night and less than stellar -- but not entirely terrible by network TV comedy standards these days -- ratings, it looks like they've changed their mind.
If there's a bright side to the cancellation, it's that Greg Garcia, director James Burrows and the talented cast are presumably free to pursue other projects.
