Michael Cudlitz is apologizing to fans of The Kids Are Alright after ABC blamed the show’s cancellation, at least in part, on viewers — or the lack thereof.
“Seriously, @abc. Just say ‘no comment.’ This is just rude. I apologize to the @TheKidsABC fandom on behalf of @abc. Smfh,” wrote the actor, who played Mike Cleary on the show during its two-season run.
Cudlitz’ comments come in response to ABC president Karey Burke telling reporters at the Television Critics Assoc. on Monday that “there did not seem to be a strong enough fan base” to renew the show.
“The Kids Are Alright was a good show — I liked [it], personally,” she said. “It was not that it didn’t fit my personal vision for the network. It was that we really looked at it… from a ratings perspective, and we just did not see enough upside.
“We looked at many measures,” Burke continued. “We looked at multi-platform viewing. We looked at social media sentiment. There did not seem to be a strong enough fan base at the time. These things always come down to business decisions, and this was a tough, tough decision.”
Leading up to the finale of the show’s first season, it was averaging an 0.87 in the demo, which was stronger than other ABC comedies like black-ish, Splitting Up Together, Fresh Off the Boat, Speechless and Bless This Mess, according to TV Line.
Cudlitz and actress Mary McCormack headlined the series, a family sitcom set in the 1970s. It centered on a brash Irish-Catholic clan of eight kids and kicks off when the eldest son returns home from seminary, only to reveal to his proud parents that he’s thinking of giving it up.
“It gets people thinking in a new and different way,” Cudlitz told EW about the show last year.
Series creator Tim Doyle announced the cancellation via Twitter back in May, writing simply, “’The Kids Are Alright’ is dead. I just got the call.”
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