There will be no third season of TNT’s buddy dramedy Men of a Certain Age after the cable network decided to pull the plug on the critically praised but low-rated series. “TNT has been proud to be a part of Men of a Certain Age for two seasons,” the network said in a statement. “While the show has featured great storytelling and impeccable performances, the audience simply hasn’t built to the point where we can continue the series. This was an extremely difficult decision for us. We wish (co-creators) Ray Romano & Mike Royce and the terrific cast and crew the very best and look forward to exploring new programming possibilities in the future.” The news comes a day after Men landed an Emmy nomination for Andre Braugher, who co-stars on the show alongside Romano and Scott Bakula. The series also landed a Peabody Award in May. Men returned for the conclusion of its second season last month to a disappointing 1.8 million viewers, 591,000 of them in the 19-49 demographic. That was down 33% from the Season 2 premiere in December.
While not completely unexpected, the cancellation represents an about-face for TNT brass. At TCA in January, the network’s chief Michael Wright did not seem phased by the series’ low ratings. “We couldn’t be happier with the show,” he said. “We look for a lot of different metrics on TNT. Obviously we want big ratings success, but we also want attention and good reviews from critics. This show works on a lot of levels for us.” Here is the Emmy piece Deadline did on Men, Romano and Royce last month.
Recent Comments
What?! Noooooo!
I am sooooo sick of these networks canceling the shows that I love.
I agree this was a great show, will miss it.
Join our crusade to save MOACA and get another network to pick it up! https://www.facebook.com/SaveMenOfACertainAge We are on a campaign for 10,000 Likes and 10,000 signatures on our petition.
How can TNT cancel a GREAT show like this and keep that turd of a show Hawthorne on the air?
Or any of there other shitty shows (F&B,Broody Banks detective drama,All Woman detective drama ect..) I watched “Men” and Supernatural(reruns) and that’s it. TNT needs to take a page out of AMC or FX and keep the Emmy winners on and take risks or they will turn into Fox very soon.
Aparently TNT doesn’t “know drama.”
Great Stars, great acting, and the way they filmed it made you feel like you were actually right there in the room with everyone. Heaven forbid we see a guys’s perspective on life; it’s joys, it’s setbacks, it’s inspiration (I guess that is only reserved for women). It was the only show of it’s kind. Really a shame. I think if they had a few more seasons, it would have excelled. It took Seinfeld several seasons to gain momentum and look at what a hit that was.
TNT, I am not sure I will EVER watch another production from you. What a shame; really.
The problem with most cable shows is that you never know when they will be on…its really stupid on the networks part to have schedules that people have to search for…no one has the time or inclination for that…I liked this show and am sorry to see it go. I suspect like millions of other viewers…I no longer rely on network programming for entertainment because you cannot rely on it…
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Great show.
Why cancel a great show like Men Of A Certain Age? TNT executives suck! How about taking Hawthorne and Falling Skies off the air! Both of those shows are stupid and a waste of space on any channel. I will watch TNT for Franklin&Bash, and Bones! Other than those two shows, I will tune into the history channel! Not the crap that TNT force feeds us!
R.I.P Men Of A Certain Age! The show was one of the best on TV, great shows are becoming like dinosaurs on TNT…Extinct!
My first comment ever to Deadline Hollywood. You’ve got to be f’n kidding me. There is no hope.
This. We may as well give up on Hollywood entertainment if shows like this are cancelled and all the reality trash gets renewed year after year. There’s no hope for well-produced, intelligent shows anymore.
don’t blame Hollywood entertainment. Blame the throngs of idiots who don’t watch quality programming and only tune in for reality crap.
Couldn’t agree more! The mongaloids that turn in every week to jersey Shore are to blame not the TV exec’s trying to keep their job and do what it profitable. GET SMARTER AMERICA!
I agree with this post.. reality crap everywhere and a show like this get cancelled.. I just shake my head. . sad.
This demonstrates such small thinking on TNT’s part to the creative community. It also tells me as a showrunner I shouldn’t bring my ideas there for fear they might get nominated and win awards and get critical praise and then cancelled.
Michael Wright, Brett Weitz and whoever didn’t think this through. They’re stuck in their bubble reading ratings charts. These are not visionary or inspiring execs.
What this really says is that TNT is not ready for success critical or otherwise. It’s all about ratings and being a cop show for the masses. They have no higher aspirations to be AMC or HBO certainly. It tells me TNT doesn’t want to broaden their brand or bring in new viewers with money and education. Men of a Certain Age was their equivalent to 30 Rock. Let people watch it on their DVR’s and buy season one and get hooked on their own time. It will build.
TNT is the red state channel of the Time/Warner group. I have no doubt they would have cancelled Nurse Jackie too.
Shows like Seinfeld were not huge ratings hits right out of the gate. What saddens me about television now is that networks just don’t let a show breathe anymore. The networks don’t let an audience find the show.
Two seasons isn’t enough time for a show to find an audience????
Not when each season is 10-12 episodes and the network then splits those into two ultra short seasons and then moves the show around and puts it in a time slot up against Monday Night Football.
*Cough* Lights Oute.
My first thought after hearing this news… this should have been picked up by HBO or Showtime.
Too bad. A smart and rewarding show that will be missed.
Yes, but not my many . . .
Your many what?
HEll yeah by many! Very many!
this show is as awful as it is depressing
If depressing was the criteria for cancellation, Hawthorne should be gone next week.
Quite honestly, I don’t know why Hawthorne — or is it HawthoRNe? — is still on the air. I usually give it an episode or two at the start of each season, but the writing is so bad and acting terrible for cast that includes some really talented people that I can’t keep watching.
“Quite honestly, I don’t know why Hawthorne — or is it HawthoRNe? — is still on the air”
You don’t really expect an honest answer, do you?
hopefully
Dare to dream.
You must be twelve.
This show shot itself in the foot with it’s “break” in the middle of Season 2. Still don’t understand why they did that. Love the show and even I had a hard time getting back into it. :(
The show didn’t do that – TNT did.
I love that show is TNT that stupid of cancel of Men of certain age PROBABLY
Are you drunk?
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Terrible decision by TNT. Their programming and marketing is a big part of the reason the show struggled to find an audience. All it did was win awards and appear on top ten lists week after week. What a shame.
Unfortunately, awards and critical reviews don’t pay the bills.
I missed the first couple of episodes in Season 1 before I was turned onto this show by a friend. It was a slow start, but interesting and I was hooked.
As dramedies go, this one needed to lighten up. It was not fun. It seemed like it was a show about failure. The gambling addiction and the mind bets dragged the show into a depressing abyss. The failed actor… The failed car salesman trying to revive a failing car dealership.
I thought the second season finished stronger and I was looking forward to seeing how much better a third season could be…
What a shame.
Agree “what a shame.” Costume Designers often complain that the hardest costuming to do–and the most overlooked at awards time–is clothing for ordinary people in a recent decade. Do a period piece set centuries ago and you get to work with gorgeous brocades, and there’s also no one alive to complain that Elizabeth I would never have worn that. Screw-up your 80s costumes, and everyone bitches that no female lawyer would’ve worn legwarmers to work.
I think that’s the enormous challenge that Men of a Certain Age took on. They dared to write without artificially spicing up the show by giving the characters glamorous jobs or putting them in crazy or criminal situations. When a character did come down with cancer, it wasn’t a DRAMATIC TWIST, it was just the miserable crap that cancer is in real-life.
I applaud them for writing real, adult drama, not so much about failure as realistic life transitions. Breaking Bad is deservedly praised, but it’s a showy drama, in an Elizabethan costume sense. Writing about a guy trying to save his business, or realizing he may never be the golfer or actor he dreamed of being, is in many ways much harder to get right. Kudos to Royce and Romano for taking the risk.
As for the low ratings, this was yet another case of a good show being doomed by bad scheduling. Perhaps if it had been on demographically-correct CBS in a low-expectations Friday at 10PM slot, it might’ve run for years.
One of the two or three best shows of the last four years. I guess it’s back to pedestrian cop shows and space aliens on TNT.
If you just called Southland a “pedestrian cop show” then you have no business commenting on the value of a TV series.
If you just referred to Falling Skies as “space aliens” then you have no business commenting on the value of a TV series.
If you just suggested Falling Skies is anything other than worthless crap, then you have no business commenting on any TV series ever made.
Note to prospective TV networks (HBO/Showtime) or satellite providers (ie DirecTV): I love this show so much that I will either switch carriers or buy your programming if you would take this show on.
I’d even get an XBox Live account.
Okay, your $29.00 a month have convinced me. Now get me 2 million of your friends.
I loved this show! But, I think it’s just too real about middle-aged life. Boomers and soon-to-be mid-lifing Gen Ex-ers want to keep their blinders and stay in Never Never Land. They refuse to admit they’re getting old and the age of endless possibility is over. This show is just too truthful about the disappointments of mid-life life.
I agree 100%.
Great show. Great writing, great acting. That’s all you can ask for.
The Mike Binder show “Mind of a Married Man” suffered a similar fate. Don’t want to compare the two shows beyond their subject matter, because I haven’t seen MOOCA. But clearly it’s a tough area.
Emmy Voters: “Hey, Let’s Give Andre’ Braugher a nod for A great performance of great material!”
TNT: “Let’s cancel this sucker and get a reality show that brings eyeballs”
America: “Wow, that does’t make any sense…. OH WAIT, THERE’S A SINGING CONTEST ON! YEA!”
There’s no grander tradition than Emmy’s going to cancelled shows. So this means Braugher is now a lock to win.
If you’ll remember, back in 2001, he was nominated for Gideon’s Crossing a little under 3 months after the show was canceled.
Definitely a prize to be scooped up by another network. It’s already a cable show, so fairly low-budget. How ’bout classing up the joint on Showtime?
This is insane. This show is way too good for it to just go away. TV watchers can have their pick of supernatural or legal or buddy cop bullshit shows, but when it comes to thoughtful and hilarious and heartbreaking dramas there’s (now) nothing.
What part of “nobody was watching it” don’t you understand, moron?
Who you calling Moron? F right off
No suprise ‘Men’ got the whack on TNT… the ratings fell after the first season (which was the best). I HEARD that Dick Wolf’s ‘Law & Order’ / ‘Law & Order: LA’ could get a pick-up on TNT by 2012! USA network confirmed today that they canceled ‘Law & Order: CI’.
I hope Ray Romano finds work somewhere (I’m sure he will). Maybe Ray Romano could be the lead in ‘Law & Order: LA’. Alfred Molina’s got a role in ‘Harry’s Law’ now.
I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that the issue was how much the show cost (salaries of the cast) against how low the ratings were despite it’s critical acclaim. I loved the show.
Too bad I actually liked it.Maybe another network will pick it up.
Excellent point! Maybe Oprah will grab it.
Oprah talks a good game but she has not put her money behind it. OWN is about low costing silly reality shows.
I saw no announcement that TNT was switching this show from Monday to Wednesday nights–BIG MISTAKE. This is ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS ON TELEVISION. IN INVOLVES INCREDIBLE STORY WRITING AND ACTING. IT WAS SUPERBLY ENTERTAINING.
Sad to see this one go… But completely understand the business decision behind it. Maybe TNT should have marketed it a bit more for its summer half season, but having worked on a few shows that haven’t made it past a second year and constantly hearing that excuse/complaint over and over, it’s clear these fan favorite shows just need a strong, bigger fan base to justify keeping them on the air. That’s it.
Hope Ray Romano and Mike Royce get an opportunity with another series somewhere.
Meh, the show was in desperate need of a wild card character. All of those actors seemed to function in the same role, which made the show an absolute slog to sit though. It may turn into one of those… oh yeah, I remember that show… shows, but probably not.
I love the show but it’s never been a good programming fit with their all-procedural(except for the new Falling Skies) programming mix. Very big bummer, though, for those of us who enjoy good character driven storytelling. Just didn’t have enough of a ‘hook’ and obviously skewed old.sigh.
Very sad news. Was a terrific show with a great cast. RIP.
Blame the audience – as in the silly, stupid, happy-to-be-spoon-fed-crap audience that didn’t watch the show.
TNT gave it a run…the break didn’t help, but you could argue that it gave a new audience one last chance to find the show, so who knows.
Very disappointing…I agree, I would get/keep a cable provider that picked it up, but it isn’t hapening.