“Murphy Brown” fell short of its hype in the reboot of the formerly popular CBS sitcom, early ratings indicate.
The reboot of the comedy premiered on Thursday night, nearly 20 years after it was taken off the air. Thursday’s pilot was titled “Fake News” and maintained a steady left-leaning, anti-Trump bend for the 30-minute slot. (RELATED: THE NFL TV RATINGS ARE OUT. THEY ARE HUGE)
“Murphy Brown,” which follows a female telecaster of the same name, featured a cameo appearance by Hillary Clinton. But despite the considerable hype ahead of the reboot, “Murphy Brown” delivered less than impressive ratings.
The sitcom brought in a 1.1 rating in adults 18–49 and 7.42 million viewers in total. Sounds pretty impressive for a reboot, but similar reboots have done substantially better. “Roseanne” brought in a 5.2 rating among adults 18–49 and 18.44 million viewers in total. (RELATED: YOU WON’T BELIEVE THE MONSTER RATINGS THE ‘ROSEANNE’ PREMIERE GOT)
The show has widely been criticized as boring and unoriginal.
“This show expects you to find these things funny: Murphy wearing a sweatshirt that reads ‘Original Nasty Woman’; the punchline ‘Trump is Facebook friends with Putin’; and the observation ‘O.J. is out, Nazis are in.’ Are you laughing yet?” Yahoo! critic at large Ken Tucker writes.
Ratings certainly aren’t looking promising for shows with a left bend, yet shows that flirt with a more conservative audience, as FOX’s “Last Man Standing,” and ABC’s “Roseanne” tend to be ratings gold.
But you know what they say. Make shows for yourself, not for your audience.
Or something like that.