FRIDAY 8:30 PM: Fox's 2007-2008 primetime season sitcom Back To You starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton as bickering TV co-anchors has been cancelled. Veteran 'Til Death starring Brad Garrett has been ordered by the network. I've just been told that the network's comedy pilot The Inn (20th Century Fox TV/ Reveille/Principato-Young Entertainment) is officially picked up to series now. Just before this decision, the pilot was given the go-ahead by Fox to meet writers. So they can hire now. Directed by Jason Bateman, the pilot "screened best," I was told earlier today. The network liked it from the start, even though its initial script was deemed "unreadable" by some people whose opinions I respect. Writer/Exec Prod: Abe Higgenbotham. Stars: Niecy Nash, Jerry O'Connell, Molly Stanton, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jolene Purdy, Brando Eaton.
Back To You deserves better. It’s a good show on the wrong network. Fox would just as soon strap someone to a lie detector than take the time to protect and develop a solid, traditional show.
Are you listening NBC, CBS, and/or ABC ???????????
Peggy Lane O’Rourke
Comment by Peggy Lane O'Rourke — May 10, 2008 @ 12:19 am
This is stupid. Back To You was one the best new show of the season and now it’s axed. I thought ratings for it were alright and it had a good cast and funny storylines. If Fox do not reconsider pehaps the other networks should. There are worst shows on tv with less viewers that still get renewed. Hope that something good can happen to this great show.
Comment by Cameron — May 10, 2008 @ 4:17 am
Back to you is one of the best written sitcoms on the air this year. Good comedy. Not like most of the stupid, almost all sexual sitcoms on today. You guys are making a mistake. Go to another network. Their incredible!
Comment by Hope Coppola — May 10, 2008 @ 7:29 am
What a shame. This was a solid show. It seemed like the network, between the strike and assorted other time changes, let this one die before it got a footing. Still, it probably wasn’t meant for Fox and it’s low brow style. This one had NBC/CBS all over it. It’s rare, but another network pick-up is warranted here.
Comment by Fred — May 10, 2008 @ 9:11 am
How Ironic. ‘Til Death was the lead off anchor that helped pull Back To You under water. Way to go Fox. Keep up the mediocrity.
Comment by Tim Jones — May 10, 2008 @ 9:17 am
That’s too bad. I liked the show. Unfortunately they had it on a bad night for me, but I caught it when I could. Hope there’ll be a DVD release at least.
Comment by Reader — May 10, 2008 @ 11:03 am
Fox - You have eyes, but cannot see; ears, but cannot hear. Your strategy and mentality is enough to turn a Republican into a Democrat.
Comment by Glenn — May 10, 2008 @ 11:17 am
B2Y is for sure on the wrong network, its for an older crowd, CBS should be all over it. And Glenn, FOX and strategy? You don’t believe this was thought out and planned do you? lol!
Comment by Leslietired — May 10, 2008 @ 11:35 am
Back to You is far superior to Til Death. It seems Fox is just determined to be in the Brad Garrett Business until death. It doesn’t matter that the show isn’t funny. Or good. Or funny. Or watchable…
Comment by Anonymous — May 10, 2008 @ 12:32 pm
What a shame! This show deserved a second season more than any other new comedy this Fall. It had great potential and two of the best comedic actors on tv to date. It was funny and witty. I can’t understand how they can get cancelled but mediocre shows like Til’ Death and According to Jim are still on air. Good luck to all the actors and the writers in their future endeavors. They all deserve better than FOX!
Comment by BTY Fan — May 10, 2008 @ 12:34 pm
I second all of the positive comments you guys are making about Back To You. On top of surprisingly good writing, you have Patricia Heaton, Kelsey Grammer, and Fred Willard all on the *same* show.. and they cancelled it?
This is a true WTF? moment!
Comment by MildApplause — May 10, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
Once again another studio blunder. When will they wake up?? For all the smut and junk out there to axe Back to You disappoints me but does not surprise me. Once again a good show takes a back seat to… well, crap. Way to go Fox stand up and give yourselves a hand.
Comment by Rex — May 10, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
What a disaster by FOX. Back to You was the best sitcom on network television in years, let alone this season. It outshines every sitcom on every network . . . it deserves so much better. The ratings were always decent for this show. I think FOX acted too quickly when the last episode didn’t score over 7 million. The supposedly series finale is this Wednesday - I highly suggest everyone and their brother watch it. Maybe if does extremely well, some heads will be turned over at FOX.
ALso, please email FOX about this. It’s the only shot we have right now at changing some minds. I have never seen FOX make such a huge mistake when it comes to scheduling. This show is the bomb. Patricia and Kelsey have unbelievable chemistry with each other, every episode has been fantastic in more than 1 way. Too bad FOX is run by a bunch of fools.
Comment by Julie — May 10, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
Give this show another chance. There are more viewers out there watching it than you realize.
Comment by Ann — May 10, 2008 @ 3:32 pm
Peter Liguori is a no-talent idiot without one creative bone in his body. The guy should be selling insurance in Kansas. Kevin Reilly is a no-backbone weasel. I defy any show on television to succeed with the on-and-off time period Fox gave this great show. Excuse me, four time periods in fifteen episodes. Still, didn’t Back to You win its time period last week? Yes, it did.
Right show, wrong network. Good luck to the show’s cast & crew. You deserve better than Fox.
Comment by Back To You Fan — May 10, 2008 @ 3:45 pm
oh, no! the levitan curse strikes again!
even grammer, heaton, lloyd, and burrows couldn’t it prevent it.
don’t look into it’s eyes, it might strike you too!
Comment by ILOVEB2U — May 10, 2008 @ 6:58 pm
Add me to the list of people who think this is just stupid.
Back to You is a good show. It’s funny and shows huge growth potential.
Networks jettison things that show promise in order to buy pure lottery tickets and then wonder when that and then their whole network tanks.
Comment by Tim — May 10, 2008 @ 6:58 pm
Wow. Fox really is run by a bunch of idiots. Back To You is one of my favorite shows!
Whatever happened to when they actually let shows have a chance? Example: Cheers in 1982. Came in dead last in the ratings. Stayed on for 11 seasons and was a huge hit.
Comment by Lola — May 10, 2008 @ 8:24 pm
Well, Once again we’re left with mind numbing; time sucking shows that
are not entertaining but getting people involved in sensationalism that perpetuates things we don’t want our children to adopt.Reality shows &crap like Till Death which is not only unwatchable but really bad in the sitcom genre! Back To you has not only the strongest sitcom cast on television but the best Director &
Really great creators & writing. Maybe a network with class will pick the show up & give it the opportunity it deserves.How did we get away from enjoying a break from our lives with good old fashioned comedies.B2Y is the best one out there. Shame on you Fox shame on you.
G.
Comment by G. — May 10, 2008 @ 9:03 pm
Actually, Blame Levitan and Lloyd on this. I have never forgiven FOX for killing Arrested Development due to how the studio treated the creators of that little masterpiece, what did Levitan expect? Why jump into bed with the very over-rated comedy team of Dana & Gary after the hell that was Stacked? Why ? Mr. Levitan, it was pure laziness on your part and Mr. Lloyd you should have fought harder, if you were on CBS, you would be emmy-worthy by now.
Goodnight Kelsey, Goodnight Patricia, see you later Fred!
Comment by Leslietired — May 10, 2008 @ 10:20 pm
Please renew this show. Fox, you are complete morons. How can you keep something as mediocre and stupid as Til Death and axe this great show. I will no longer watch ANYTHING on your network unless you renew this show. You are all PATHETIC!
Comment by backtoyoufan — May 11, 2008 @ 6:43 am
Back to You>>>>>>>>>Til Death
Til Death is such an unfunny show and Brad Garrett is just annoying to watch in it. Back to You is so much funnier and original and it’s such a shame that Fox couldn’t see that.
Another network has to realize that and have to pick it up. It deserves so much beter.
Comment by Ryan — May 11, 2008 @ 7:33 am
This high quality program was a bad fit for the tragically tacky Fox network. So put BACK TO YOU on one of the “real” networks and quit moving it around the schedule. The baby-boomers will find it. The over-40 demo has the money that the advertisers are after. People WILL watch a quality sitcom.
Comment by EPK — May 11, 2008 @ 8:00 am
Back to You is a shameless rip-off of Goodnight, Burbank.
Comment by Rachel — May 11, 2008 @ 9:57 am
Wow - Fox and some other network who’s mascot is an animal sure has a tough time DEVELOPING shows… I have an idea, hire former comedy writers and/or producers to be development execs instead of twenty and thirty something year old punks who don’t know how to write yet alone tie their shoes
Comment by MP3000 — May 11, 2008 @ 10:15 am
This show is great! I don’t understand! ARGHHH!!!
Comment by Ron in Syracuse — May 11, 2008 @ 11:53 am
NOOOOO! Fox, you suck. This show is good. And it was the only show I watched on your network. Now I guess I’ll go back to never watching Fox again until football season.
Comment by Ron in Syracuse — May 11, 2008 @ 12:01 pm
This is such a great show! Does FOX even have a good reason for canceling it and renewing a show that did worse in ratings? They should have kept this on AFTER American Idol so it good have those strong ratings like it did for those two episodes in February!
I’ve had no faith in FOX for such a long time because they forget that other shows than just American Idol and House have potential. This only reconfirms my belief that FOX isn’t worth my time unless Back to You is renewed! But this show would probably do better on other networks.
Comment by Ava — May 11, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
What is with FOX, they treat sitcoms like crap. They treated Married with Children like crap at the end (not even giving it a series finale), and now they do this. WHy did FOX even pick this show up if they were going to do this. ATTENTION NBC, PICK THIS SHOW UP NOW. You lost Scrubs, TAKE A SHOT ON THIS.
Comment by Derek — May 11, 2008 @ 12:13 pm
I am not happy with this decision at all. I thought this show was awesome!!!
Comment by Trevor — May 11, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
Back To You was a brilliant show. Definatly the funnier multi-cam on TV. Since February it has gotten much better. Please reconsider, or another network pick it up, please.
Comment by Jamie — May 11, 2008 @ 2:44 pm
BTW, apparently Back to You was going to start producion on season 2 on Tuesday. It’s probably just as unexpected for the cast/crew as it is for us.
Comment by Jamie — May 11, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
BACK TO YOU had three things going for it - GRAMMER, FRED WILLARD & HEATON and very little else. The writer staff seemed like they went on strike in August. The other newsroom characters were pointless - the writers left them dead to serve no purpose beyond the pilot. If you’re going to need to revamp that much of the show, might as well start over.
Comment by jbelkin — May 11, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
My favorite TV show was “Back to You”!!!
It was funny I can’t believe that FOX would keep
Til Death which is NOT funny and cancel “Back to You”
It was not given a chance they started out with about two shows then repeated them over and over then no show because of the strike. It had better ratings than Til Death..I hope some other network picks it up.
Everyone I got to watch “Back to You” loved it.
Who’s bright idea was it to cancel the show.
Comment by Patrice — May 11, 2008 @ 3:19 pm
For a network I like a lot, they sure make some dumb decisions. This is the worst thing they’ve done since cancelling Arrested Development, and I not totally over that! I invested in this show for a season, remember hearing about it in pilot season, and knew I wanted to watch it. And now all of that for nothing! When you have three sitcom vets on a decent show, that should be enough already. What does a show have to do to make it? They don’t cancel the NBC comedies and they get even less viewers! WHY? WHY do these things happen?!
Comment by Shaun — May 11, 2008 @ 4:04 pm
NBC: THIS IS YOUR CHANCE!!!
Grab Back To You and put it on Thursdays!
Earl / Back To You / Office / 30 Rock
(Or some combination thereof…)
Comment by MildApplause — May 11, 2008 @ 7:42 pm
All about the brand for FOX at this point. Til Death, while not great, can be random enough at times, and seems more on brand.
Fringe, Dollhouse, etc plus Prison Break, 24, the harder stuff, this is what it’s about. Comedy has to be a shade of that. Arrested now might have worked with Family Guy’s lead in. This ain’t no time machine.
Who is FOX doing deals with? They worked on a certain show…
Creatively, think more like Hammer Films for a while. Hey. ABC leans into its strengths.
However. CBS and NBC do indeed suck.
Comment by at&t — May 11, 2008 @ 10:07 pm
According to TV Week: CBS has been given episodes to screen. CBS has been considering starting a new night of comedy in addition to it’s Monday night line-up. I think Back To You would be a great addition to the network.
CBS announces its fall line-up this Wednesday May the 14th.
Comment by Peggy Lane O'Rourke — May 11, 2008 @ 10:09 pm
I hope that another network takes advantage of Fox’s stupid treatment of Back To You. This show is really funny and Kelsey and Patricia alone make the show worth watching. I don’t get it - they leave ’til death on which is garbage and drop kick this show? Ugh!
Comment by Annette — May 12, 2008 @ 5:57 am
I agree. This is a good show with a lot of potential. It started off rocky, but improved. I never cared for Heaton (and think the show would ROCK with somebody else like Debra Messing, Jennifer Aniston, or the chick who played Phoebe on Friends).
I agree that this would be a better fit on CBS or on the Thursday night NBC line-up.
Fox is not the network for this show.
Comment by Martha Mitchell — May 12, 2008 @ 1:06 pm
Why all the ‘Til Death bashing? It is a shame that Back to You has been canceled. ‘Til Death is a very funny show and deserves some respect! It all comes down to economics, Back to You was more costly to produce. The whole industry has suffered from not giving the shows enough time to develop creatively and grow an audience. So quit bashing ‘Til Death and concentrate showing how much you think Back to You should be given a chance. Brad Garrett and the rest of the show ‘Til Death are great, have you seen the new guy J.B.? The show has gotten better and better.
Comment by Anonymous — May 12, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
The reason the ratings are poor is because they never show more than 3 episodes in a row. If they started airing the show every week, more people would watch it.
A great comedy finally shows up and no one gives it a cchance. We can keep horrible reality shows and bad ccomedys but not a top notch show like back to you. If it wasn’t for Family Guy and the Simpsons, I wouldn’t watch fox.
Comment by Andrew Hutchins — May 12, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
I feel the same way as everyone else! Back to You is one of the shows I always watch or DVR. I would love to continue to watch it on another channel!!! I actually hate that new Christina Applegate show and can’t believe that is renewed!!!
Comment by lorraine — May 12, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
I beg to differ Anonymous(or I work somewhere for Fox or the show itself). However, you are right to point out how important it is for us to rally around the show we love. Thank-you and enjoy ‘Til death along with the other three of you.
Comment by Gammerfan — May 12, 2008 @ 7:57 pm
Back To You was an insipid waste of time. Over-priced stars spouting 3rd-rate comedic dialogue. What’s frightening is not that ‘Til Death was renewed, but that some many people here making comments thought that BTY was entertaining. No wonder most of TV is crap. Well BTY fans, you always have 2-1/2 Men.
Comment by Vic Nardozza — May 12, 2008 @ 10:40 pm
Even if Patricia Heaton showed up on BTY to just read the yellow pages she would be a million times funnier than Jennifer Aniston. Messing and Kudrow are great actresses but I would never see them fit to play Kelly Carr! Patty is just perfect for the role and has incredible chemistry with Grammer.
Comment by Sonia — May 13, 2008 @ 4:26 pm
renew “Back to you”. You didn’t give it a chance. I recorded this show every week on my DVR. I really love watching Kelsey Grammer. It was the writers strike that really hurt the show. The story was just starting to get good.
Damn you fools. Bring “Back to You” back on…
Comment by Bonnie — May 14, 2008 @ 11:09 pm
Maybe the show would have done better if they hadn’t spent so much time focusing on the daughter issue. When the show was in the newsroom, it was hilarious. When it focused on the daughter issue, it wasn’t worth watching. As much as I liked the cast, the writers were more intent on shoving the daughter issue down our throats (especialy in the past few episodes) than taking advantage of that cast, so quite frankly this cancellation doesn’t bother me nearly as much as I would have thought.
Comment by Skvoznyak — May 15, 2008 @ 8:27 am
Back to You is one of two sitcoms my wife and I watch this season (Ugle Betty being the other). It has a great cast, good writers, great storylines and is well done. With all those things going for it, it’s no wonder Fox is taking it off the air. Another network should pick up the series - it’s quality entertainment.
Comment by Rick — May 18, 2008 @ 9:36 am
I akways liked Fox but they really,really,really screwed up here. One it is a digrace to let them be told the way they did. Two, with all the real crap on TV, reruns everynight from years ago (Like we didn’t notice) and they cancell one of the very best shows, ever…..Wake up Fox…..Another network needs to step up to the plate and do themselves some good.
Comment by Mikey — May 18, 2008 @ 9:40 pm
I watched them tape the very last episode that didn’t get aired. It was the funniest one yet. I hope it gets played sometime. I will miss this show.
Comment by Mark — May 19, 2008 @ 9:14 am
I also believe ‘Back to You’ shouldn’t have been cancelled. At this rate, all we’re going to have left are moronic reality shows, ‘The Simpsons’–which, admittedly, is the funniest show on television, followed by ‘Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union’ and American Idol, which I could care less about.
C’mon Fox, you can do better!
Comment by JoeE — May 19, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
PUT BACK TO YOU ON THE AIR>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by bill — May 22, 2008 @ 5:07 pm
I only watch & enjoy about three shows & this was one of them. I guess what is most telling is that I was actually surprised when I first saw it on Fox, it just didn’t seem to fit in their lineup.
I hope CBS picks it up.
Comment by Mike Smith — May 23, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
Didn’t fox also cancel the Family Guy only to realize they made a mistake? I hate when networks keep changing the days and timeslots….its hard to get into the shows. I actually liked this show.
Comment by Shannon — June 2, 2008 @ 4:43 pm
Remember… this is the same network that switches out of TIED-UP football games at 4:15 when there are 30 seconds left. That they killed BACK TO YOU is no surprise. NBC: Pick up the ball and RUN!
Comment by bp — June 3, 2008 @ 3:51 am
I guess I’m in the minority of these comments, but I was very disappointed with “Back to You.” With the successful star line-up, I anticipated a great new comedy. But, it ended up being a rather smut-filled attempt to play to a morally deficient culture. The acting was stilted and predicatable, and never developed a plausible plot. Great actors, poor writers. Too bad.
Comment by David — June 3, 2008 @ 7:19 am
Fox screwed up Royally! This show had great actors, characters, and was very well written. The writing smacked of past comedies such as Taxi, Cheers, Fraser, etc. The lines were very funny and delivered with great timing. I truly hope that CBS or NBC will be smart enough to pick up Back To You and give it the chance it deserves. If they had given it a chance like they did when they wanted to cancel Cheers after its first year, it would have paid off great dividends.
Comment by Bruce — June 11, 2008 @ 10:45 am
I’m so angry about Back to You being cancelled!! So Stupid!! I don’t know why they got rid of Ayda Feld either. Fox YOU STINK!!!!
Comment by Eric — June 27, 2008 @ 2:38 am