That’s a wrap on “Undateable.”
After three seasons — one of which was shot live — NBC has cancelled the comedy “Undateable,” Variety has learned.
Created by Bill Lawrence and Adam Sztykiel, the “bromantic” ensemble series starred Chris D’Elia, Brent Morin, David Fynn, Rick Gassman, Ron Funches, Bianca Kajlich and Bridgit Mendler. Based on the book “Undateable: 311 Things Guys do That Guarantee They Won’t be Dating or Having Sex,” the TV series centered around Danny (D’Elia) and his group of friends and their respective dating lives — or single lives.
Insiders say the show effectively got the kibosh late last month when the cast and crew were given a heads up of the series fate, but as Variety previously reported, the official news would not come until the time of Upfronts.
Debuting in May 2014, the show started as a summer series with its second season shifting to the spring and the most recent season wrapping this January, after a fall run.
In an effort to bring more viewers to the modest-rated show, “Undateable” went completely live for its third season, shooting nearly every episode live for both the east and west coast with a live studio audience and musical guests, which included The Backstreet Boys, Weezer and Megahn Trainor. The live format came after a live hourlong special during season two, which featured Ed Sheeran and aired to favorable response. However, even with the live shows for all of season three, ratings declined from the previous season as it and newcomer “Truth Be Told” never generated much ratings heat on Friday for the net.
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According to Nielsen, “Undateable” averaged a 1.0 rating in adults 18-49 and 3.18 million total viewers in “live plus-3” estimates, and never really got much of a time-shifted lift. (It averaged 0.8 in the demo and 2.75 million in same-day numbers.)
“NBC really likes live TV so I knew that it would make them excited,” Lawrence told Variety at a table read for season three, speaking of the new live format. “Part of the battle in network television is having the network you’re on be very excited about your show, especially because it’s a tough landscape for network comedy.”
He added, “We live in a world where people still look at the numbers the next morning, even though they shouldn’t, which drives me crazy.”
