The Carmichael Show Gets Cancelled

NBC has cancelled controversial sitcom, The Carmichael Show after three seasons. The show earned an eleventh hour renewal last year, despite NBC questioning the show’s uncertain future. News about the show ending surfaced after Jerrod Carmichael announced in a statement that he would no longer star in the comedy.

“For three seasons (okay 2.5), I got to make a show that I love with my friends,” he said. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was 13. Now, I’m excited to go make other things that I love. Thank you to every person who worked on or watched The Carmichael Show.“

The fate of The Carmichael Show had already been rocky after renewal negotiation between NBC and 20th TV in May wasn’t going anywhere. The Carmichael Show often took on topics that sparked conversation. Not only were the show’s topics controversial, but the timeliness of the episodes were as well. Just recently, NBC decided to postpone an episode that dealt with mass shootings on a day of two real life mass shootings in the U.S. The network’s decision to delay the episode was publicly criticized. Carmichael referred to the preemptive act as “criminal.” The comedy then took on the debate over the use of the N-word following Bill Maher’s use of it on his HBO show.

Although the show tackles today’s social and political issues and mixes it brilliantly with comedy, The Carmichael Show so far this season is averaging 3.7 million weekly viewers and a 0.8 demo rating, which is down 12 percent from its sophomore run. 20th Century Fox TV presidents Jonnie Davis and Howard Kurtzman said in a statement, “The Carmichael Show was such a wonderful show that we choose to focus today not on its loss but on the three incredible seasons we had the pleasure to produce.”

Be sure to catch the show’s third and final season Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.