Sean Hayes Blames NBC for Disappointing Rates — Page 2

I'm the odd man out but I like the show. I honestly have no idea how any former fans of the horribly written Will & Grace can compare this new show unfavorably to that one. It's silly, but not insulting to the intelligence like Will & Grace. And when I think about the laughs I get out of the show as compared to the feeling of having been slimed by the actively insulting "The New Normal" last year, it's a regular tonic.

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I've watched a few episodes and I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did, what with Linda lavin and Megan Hilty being involved. Overall I thought it was extremely sub-par, certainly not the funniest show around by any means. These days the multi-camera format only seems to work on CBS, likely because of its previously mentioned vast viewership.

Updated On: 10/24/13 at 03:40 PM

They need to fire and replace the entire writing staff and go to a single camera format. It is so obvious to one's ear that they are enhancing the live audience laughter with canned laughter.

Updated On: 10/24/13 at 04:49 PM

The show is not awful its just OK, but how anyone can think its better that Will and Grace is beyond me. He is right though, NBC is a dying network, when here hit shows can barely get above a 2.0 in the demo you know something is very very wrong.

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I also saw an audience taping (show 7-yet to air), and it was strange in that, the writing team were really enjoying their work and patting themselves on the back, but many of us left thinking, the show will never do well. With various takes they would try to punch up the jokes (actually it was the actors coming up with better jokes particularly the guy who plays the boss, who actually was great). Sean seemed a bit nervous, and it seemed SO SO forced, and not funny.....the only thing LESS funny was the audience comedian. Just awful and kinda an a-hole. But Linda Lavin was a joy to see, and how she would do her lines different every take.

Megn was awesome in "Smash" should have won the Emmy.

He's just trying to promote the show. It's torturous to carry an entire series on your shoulders. Hundreds of people's livelihoods are dependent on "your" show succeeding.

It's just like the leads in Broadway shows that are failing doing a curtain speech asking the audience to tell their friends to come.

Sean Hayes isn't being deluded, he's just trying to save work for himself a bunch of other people.

If Sean thinks his show is the funniest on TV he's never seen "The New Girl".

His character has seen a nude girl.

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See, I just keep seeing what could have been. Imagine one sitcom that combined the premises of both Sean Saves the World and The Michael J. Fox Show:

Sean must figure out how to parent his 14-year-old daughter, who just moved in, while navigating a temperamental new boss at work. Meanwhile, his partner, Michael, who once had to give up his career as a news anchor for a New York television station after being diagnosed with Parkinson's to focus on his health and his family, is now struggling between family and career as he decides to get back to work five years later.

That's a reality that is going to be increasingly common in the years to come, and you can mine it for no small amount of comedy, drama, and all the other things that make up a memorable series. They said people weren't ready for Will and Grace, and look how long that lasted. My far more daring idea, in this age of Modern Family, to name one example, could only work, with the right writers and creative team.

I bet you someone like Susan Harris would have been the first to approach the runners and say, "These shows aren't going to work on their own. Fox has been away too long, and Hayes is not leading man material. Two bad concepts with two border line A-list actors = ratings disaster. Bring these forces together."

We need someone like that in this industry again.

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Updated On: 10/25/13 at 01:35 PM

followspot, SSTW is not up against The Big Bang Theory on CBS, but The Crazy Ones. It's biggest competition is not on CBS actually, but on ABC with Grey's Anatomy.

NBC scheduled Welcome to the Family, which has already been cancelled, as the original lead-in to SSTW, and that certainly didn't help anyone out.

Even with a rerun of The Voice as a lead-in last night SSTW could only muster a 1.1 ratings share. The damage has been done and it will be lucky to play out its 13 episodes.

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If he thinks this is the funniest show on TV, he hasn't seen Louie!

...You all watch awful comedies.

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