Why was MITM cancelled?

Jmor777

New member
I was wondering why they decided to cancel the show. Was it because of low viewership or did they feel it was time to end the show while they were on top? I did not start watching the show until a couple of months ago and have no idea of how well it did in the ratings. :)
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
ah....I feel you misse dout on a great thing while it was happening, but it is good to see people still enjoying it. I feel, personally, that Fox and the staff of MITM decided to go out while they were on top, like you said. Reese and Malcolm were graduating from High School, and it was a natural ending to a great series.
 

AlexTheMartian

New member
It could partly have to do with it was the right time to have the boys graduate (most teenage shows suck once they move on to college, i.e. Saved by the Bell), but I think it has more to do with ratings.

While it was hugely popular during its start when it aired on Sundays, once they moved it to Fridays at 8:30 p.m. Malcolm in the Middle averaged fewer than 3.5 million viewers a week making it FOX's lowest-rated show, then for the final season the moved it back to Sundays so it can have a decent farewell. In fact they announced the cancellation 12 days before they moved the show back to Sundays, so really that was only done to give the show a proper farewell.

The awards the show won shows how the show was more successful at its start, then towards the end. It only won Emmy awards for directing and writing for its first two seasons.

It is something I am sad to admit, but I must tell the truth.
 
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Tyno

Malcolm-France
Alex is right: FOX cancelled the show because of its low ratings. Besides, there were no talking with the cast and crew of the show whatsoever; they announced the cancellation of the show to them a few days before they announced it to the media.
 

MalcolmFun

New member
I think the bottom line was that the show cost more to produce then other half hour comedies. They could replace it with shows that were cheap.

Look at TV ratings nowadays, we arent in the days of Seinfeld and Friends anymore. Half hour comedies don't even make the weekly top 20 in ratings. If Malcolm was still on Sundays now getting 3 million that is as much as the simpson and the other Fox sunday shows get. Some others that have been on for years like Everyboy hates Chris didnt even get a 1.0 rating this week. A new episode of Scrubs this week in a primtime thursday spot got 3.5.

No half hour comedies get more then a few million viewers really. Grey's anatomy is the only one I see that cracked 10. American Idol, Dancing with the stars ect get 20 million
 
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Deleted member 1693

Guest
Things have been going downhill in plenty areas of media lately. It's almost depressing.
 

AlexTheMartian

New member
or.....

everyone else is streaming shows online, or downloading torrents of them

:laugh:

funny, but really, im serious, that probably is more of a factor now then it would have been back a few years ago.
 

MalcolmFun

New member
I'm not sure how that specifically hurts comedies more then other shows, if that is what you are suggesting?
 

cadmiumgold

New member
But when they say cancelled does that mean it was in the actors contracts etc to do more and they made a last minute decision to cut it because they thought it had stopped being good?

To be honest I don't notice a decline towards the sixth and seventh seasons, I think it was consistently good throughout.

The seventh season is really good but that could be because they knew it would end, they might have wanted it to go out on a high but I can't see that they wouldn't stay good, it didnt run for that long a time really. I think they coul have done interesting stuff with college and stuff but I can see where it might not be of the best quality.

The finale felt like they were keeping it open to carry on though, definately.

It's not too late... has a show ever taken a couple of years break and then come back? and did they have hopes of it getting picked up by another network or something?
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
From Frankie is saying he defo won't act in it again. So I wouldn't hold out for anything.
 
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Deleted member 1693

Guest
But when they say cancelled does that mean it was in the actors contracts etc to do more and they made a last minute decision to cut it because they thought it had stopped being good?

To be honest I don't notice a decline towards the sixth and seventh seasons, I think it was consistently good throughout.

The seventh season is really good but that could be because they knew it would end, they might have wanted it to go out on a high but I can't see that they wouldn't stay good, it didnt run for that long a time really. I think they coul have done interesting stuff with college and stuff but I can see where it might not be of the best quality.

The finale felt like they were keeping it open to carry on though, definately.

It's not too late... has a show ever taken a couple of years break and then come back? and did they have hopes of it getting picked up by another network or something?

I'm pretty sure only animated shows or shows with casts that are committed/don't age quickly can manage to pull that off.
 

cadmiumgold

New member
True. The Simpsons for example has gone on for eternity and will probably continue for ages because the characters never age.
 

Ryebeach

Moderator
But when they say cancelled does that mean it was in the actors contracts etc to do more and they made a last minute decision to cut it because they thought it had stopped being good?

To be honest I don't notice a decline towards the sixth and seventh seasons, I think it was consistently good throughout.

The seventh season is really good but that could be because they knew it would end, they might have wanted it to go out on a high but I can't see that they wouldn't stay good, it didnt run for that long a time really. I think they coul have done interesting stuff with college and stuff but I can see where it might not be of the best quality.

The finale felt like they were keeping it open to carry on though, definately.

It's not too late... has a show ever taken a couple of years break and then come back? and did they have hopes of it getting picked up by another network or something?
All of the main cast members' contracts were up after the seventh season. If FOX wished to continue on with the series, all of the contracts would have to have been renegotiated which would have been cost prohibitive given what the ratings were the last few seasons of the show.

I completely agree with you in that I also thought season six and seven were very well done. I still found myself laughing consistently with each new eppy and the majority of my favorite episodes of the entire series were from the final two seasons. I found the writing and acting just as good the final two seasons as the seasons beforehand.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
True. The Simpsons for example has gone on for eternity and will probably continue for ages because the characters never age.

Yeah, if MITM was to continue, they'd only have 1 season left before Dewey would be in High School. And Francis would still have very few appearances.

Though it would have been interesting to have seen how the family does without Malcolm there.
 

cadmiumgold

New member
thanks ryebeach, I thought it was something along those lines. I agree Amigo22, it could have made for some interesting storylines and there could have been some good college and dewwy at high school stuff too, but maybe its nice to leave us with some storylines uncovered as it leaves it up to us and would give us some surprises if they had a reunion ep. omg im obsessed lol it wont happen but I can but hope :)
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
I think you've all hit the nails on the head by the time I've made it here. The contracts were huge because the show was also doing poorly in ratings after S6 due to its timeslot. (That was the year it was at 7:30 before the football game finished so a few eps were never even shown nationally) but nonetheless it still got renewed for S7. And it's good it did or we wouldn't have had classics like Blackout, Morp, and Graduation.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Of course one could argue it's not complete without the unknown S8. If we hadn't seen S7 we wouldn't know what we were missing and thus wouldn't realize how incomplete it were so technically.....technically it would still be complete.
 
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