In the TV world, NBC is often the butt of a lot of bad jokes. The network gets flack for low ratings and its formerly dominant Thursday night comedy block, and between all of the jokes it’s easy to miss the network’s successes. On Friday, NBC renewed the summer comedy Undateable, a half-hour sitcom about a bunch of dudes and a divorced lady in her thirties who all have problems and/or fears about not being a good catch.
Renewing a series does not necessarily indicate a show is crushing, but in Undateable’s case, the numbers look pretty solid. Of course, you need to consider that summer television doesn’t always manage the same number of eyeballs as the fall premieres. That being said, Undateable has done pretty well, premiering with a 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic and holding fairly steady in the weeks following the big premiere. As Deadline is noting, that’s good enough to edge out Fox’s splashier summer thriller Gang Related, and to ensure the network will bring back Undateable for Season 2.
To be clear, Undateable is a great ratings-bringer for NBC, but it’s not the greatest ratings hit of the summer. TV events like The Last Ship and, yes, even Sharknado 2 have brought in greater numbers, with the former premiering to 7.4 million total viewers and the latter reaching 3.9 million total viewers. Still, Undateable managed a steady audience, while many of NBC’s comedies this season totally faltered, including shows with star power behind them, like the The Michael J. Fox Show and Sean Saves the World.
Creator Bill Lawrence was the first to break the news late last night, taking to Twitter to share the big news.
While Undateable is one of NBC’s newest shows that avoided the cancellation axe, the network is going in a brand new direction with its fall lineup. Thursday night will no longer be comedy based, with The Blacklist moving to Thursdays to make the network more competitive. We’ll see if NBC can manage to maneuver itself away from bad jokes made at its expense, once and for all.
