Tough goodbyes. In December it was abruptly announced that the hit CBS comedy, Mike & Molly, was coming to an end after six seasons. The cast got a chance to comment on the cancellation during the NBC special honoring James Burrows, which aired on Sunday night. Star Billy Gardell, who plays police officer Mike Biggs, opened up to Jane Lynch about wrapping the show, saying, "We're just trying to get through it, because we have that same sense of family. I'm Irish: I'll cry and then I'll hit you.” RELATED: Melissa McCarthy ‘Burst Out Crying’ in the Final Weeks of Mike & Molly The series, which also stars comedy breakout Melissa McCarthy, started in 2010. Back in December when the cancellation was first announced, the Spy actress tweeted, “I was shocked and heartbroken when @CBS canceled #MikeAndMolly. I would have shot this show for 50 more years. I’ll miss my 2nd family.” In January, McCarthy told ET, “It’s really heartbreaking… I burst out crying … That’s my second family. I’m going to miss it so much, I almost can’t talk about it, but you know what? It’s not very often that you get six years with people that you really do truly love and good work that you’re proud of. I think they wrote a hell of a show.” RELATED: Jennifer Aniston Talks Going Through It All With Her ‘Friends’ Costars Gardell echoed that sentiment on Sunday night, adding, “We're just kind of huddling together like we have since the very beginning." The special televised event was a tribute to legendary TV director and producer Burrows, who has helped create some of the biggest series to date including Friends, Cheers, Will & Grace, Taxi and Fraiser. Most of the stars of his hit shows came out for the special, which was hosted by Andy Cohen, offering insight into Burrows’ methods. “Literally, that was my first experience of rehearsal with him was Jane [Leeves] and I were working on a bit, and from across the sound stage, he said, ‘What are you doing?’ We said, ‘Rehearsing,’ and he said, ‘Cut it out!’” Fraiser star David Hyde Pierce recalled.
Canceled by inaction. That is the fate that awaits CBS’ Mike & Molly, underscoring a conundrum six-year-old shows face when they come from outside studios and are not a runaway hit the size of The Big Bang Theory. Mike & Molly, starring Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell, received an early Season 6 renewal in March. But after the sitcom did not land a spot on the fall schedule for a third consecutive year, its 22-episode order was reduced to 13 episodes. I hear producing studio Warner Bros TV early this season approached CBS about possibly increasing the episode order and renewal plans for next season. I hear CBS declined to discuss either issue and has chosen not to engage in any communication with the studio regarding the future of the show. In light of the impasse, Mike & Molly executive producer Chuck Lorre reportedly informed the cast recently that this likely is the end of the show, leading to posts on social media by cast members Rondi Reed, Gardell and McCarthy that Mike & Molly has been canceled. It has not been officially but is certainly cancellation-bound with time running out.
Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders When a new broadcast series is picked up, that typically comes with a six-year license fee deal between the network and the producing studio and matching six-year pacts between the studio and the cast. When the six seasons are over, the network has to negotiate a new license agreement with the studio (usually shorter-term, one to three years). Based on that, the studio negotiates new contracts with the actors. Ideally, that is done early into the sixth season of a show, so the cast can be locked in for Season 7 and creators can plan the storyline. But that happens more and more these days as the networks are holding tightly their purse strings and try to postpone their renewal decisions until the last second.ABC did the same last season with another under-appreciated WBTV-produced comedy, The Middle. There was a wakeup call in February when co-star Charlie McDermott was cast as the lead in Greg Garcia’s CBS/CBS Studios comedy pilot Super Clyde. ABC had not given WBTV indications whether it was going to renew the show, and for a studio like WBTV, which is not affiliated with the network, it is not an easy decision to sign rich new actor contracts without a license fee deal in place. For blockbuster The Big Bang Theory, WBTV two years ago negotiated a new agreement with CBS first, before proceeding to hammer out new contracts with the original cast. WBTV eventually re-signed The Middle cast, and the show was renewed by ABC, but had Super Clyde gotten a series order at CBS, McDermott would’ve left the ABC comedy. That also will be the case with Mike & Molly. As of February 1, after the 13th and final episode of Season 6 is filmed, most of the actors from the show will be free to do pilots and series that will have them in first position. I hear that of the nine-member cast on the show, all but one have six-year deals. The remaining actor (I hear that is likely Gardell), has another year on their contract, which happens when a cast member gets a salary bump early in a show’s run. There had been speculation that star McCarthy would not have re-upped anyway, looking to focus on features full time the way The Office‘s Steve Carell and The Vampire Diaries‘ Nina Dobrev did, leaving their respective series at the end of their contracts. But sources close to the production insist that McCarthy had been very supportive of the show, which cast her before she was a movie star, and had been willing to continue on the comedy that earned her an Emmy. “I was shocked and heartbroken when @CBS canceled #MikeAndMolly,” McCarthy wrote on Twitter Monday. “I would have shot this show for 50 more years. I’ll miss my 2nd family.” McCarthy is close with her Mike & Molly co-stars and invited them, along with Lorre, to her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in May. The rest of the cast, which also includes Reno Wilson, Katy Mixon and Swoosie Kurtz, had been looking to continue on Mike & Molly, but with cancelation looming, they are on the market for a new series.  From CBS’ perspective, it has a network business to run. CBS had a lot of half-hour series for this season and fewer slots after replacing the Monday comedy block with dramas, so Mike & Molly, 2 Broke Girls and The Odd Couple were left off the fall schedule. Mike & Molly’s sixth season will not premiere until January 6, with new comedy Angel From Hell debuting the following night and sophomore The Odd Couple not returning until April, so the network likely would not want to start talks about a seventh season until it sees how Mike & Molly as well as the other two comedies perform and it takes a look at the crop of comedy pilots for next season. CBS always tries to keep its options open, delaying decisions on some mid-tier shows until the last second, as everyone on Rules Of Engagement can attest. Still, a sixth-season show could’ve been handled with more care given the circumstances, including an earlier launch so a renewal decision could be made sooner. In situations like this, ownership does play a role as a network sees most shows from outside studios that are not big tentpoles as puzzle pieces, not assets. In the case of Mike & Molly, there is another factor. The show comes from the top comedy producer in town, Lorre, whose entire business for the past decade had been on CBS, including blockbusters Two And A Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. Men was given a proper sendoff, with a series-end announcement early into its final season. The same courtesy is not being extended to Mike & Molly, leading to Lorre and his team’s decision to treat this as a final season and try to give the show a proper closure creatively. That move might open up the network playing field next time Lorre hits the marketplace with a new comedy series. Despite its not-so-dignified exit, Mike & Molly will leave a legacy — it played an important role in helping American audiences accept a show with leads that might not fit the traditional TV star mold. And it gave McCarthy her first leading role. It might be awhile before we see her back on series TV.
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Why did Mike and Molly end so abruptly?
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