ABC's 'Work It' Cancelled After 2 Airings

ABC has done the inevitable, pulling the plug on midseason comedy Work It. The critically panned cross-dressing comedy opened with a so-so 2.0 rating among adults 18-49 and 6.1 million viewers and plunged 20% in Week 2 to a 1.6. Work It joins such other recent comedy to bite the dust after 2 airings as NBC’s The Paul Reiser Show and CBS’ How To Be A Gentleman (thought the latter got one extra outing on Saturday.) For the time being, ABC will air Last Man Standing reruns in Work It‘s Tuesday 8:30 PM slot but the network has a half-hour series ready to go, the long-delayed third season of Cougar Town. During ABC’s TCA executive session held just before the premiere of Work It, the network’s chief Paul Lee said that he and his team “have an idea” where Cougar Town would go. The single-camera comedy with a female lead, Couteney Cox, is not an ideal companion to the traditional sitcom Last Man Standing toplined by Tim Allen, but a time slot is a time slot. “Hoping CT’s premiere date will be announced Tuesday. Fingers crossed,” Cougar Town co-creator Bill Lawrence wrote on Twitter last night following word of Work It‘s cancellation. Added co-creator Kevin Biegel, “You should all hear very soon about Cougar Town‘s return date. Everyone gets a kiss, a hug and a handshake for waiting patiently.”

GLAAD, which had waged a campaign against Work It, deeming it offensive to transgender people, issued a statement welcoming the news of the show’s cancellation. “While many of ABC’s positive and groundbreaking portrayals of LGBT people have been critical and popular successes, the public had little interest in this outdated show,” GLAAD’s Herndon Graddick said.