An enviable berth behind ratings powerhouse Dancing with the Stars gave ABC’s new Romantically Challenged a much-needed boost, but the Alyssa Milano comedy still couldn’t beat a repeat of CBS’ Big Bang Theory. The ABC show averaged 11.56 million viewers and a 3.1 rating/8 share among adults 18-49 — not enough to outrank Bang, which averaged 11.6 million viewers and a 4.0/10 in the demo.
ABC was still up in the time slot versus last year (17 percent in viewers, 29 percent in 18-49), when it aired Surviving Suburbia. Romantically Challenged also beat the final half-hour of Fox’s 24 by 2.6 million viewers and by 11 percent among adults 18-49.
Romantically Challenged follows four 30-something friends and also stars Kyle Bornheimer (Worst Week). It was created by Ricky Blitt (Family Guy) and executive produced by Blitt and James Burrows.
More Romantically Challenged from EW:
Romantically Challenged: What shows get singletons right?
Alyssa Milano takes the EW Pop Culture Personality Test
haha, as if stupid Nielsen ratings are precise enough to measure a 0.04M difference in viewership.
Romantically Challenged was a horrible show though. I predict it’ll end up on the scrap heap next to Coupling. Some appealing actors in it though (I miss Worst Week!).
I thought it was OK. Hoping it gets better. I kept thinking Alyssa Milano needed to quit making stupid facial expressions. She kept making these weird faces… I will watch again next episode to see if it gets better!
Yeah, her eye-twitching weirded me out a bit.
How about bringing back those nifty charts that show the ratings for each network per half-hour?
I agree why’d you stop those!
I hated Romantically Challenged, an awful show, but worse it brought Castle’s ratings down! If Castle weren’t already renewed I’d be really ticked off right now!
Horrible, right up there with vile Cougar Town but hey, there are enough taste-challenged people keeping that one afloat. Guess it’s just too much of an effort to change the channel…
I like Cougar Town, but this show was pretty “not good” but I would watch it again, because there is nothing else to watch on TV…
That’s about how I pick my shows now. If I can’t find some of my “OLD SCHOOL” favaorite reruns, e.g. Barney Miller, Becker, Golden Girls, or Bob Newhart, I then look to “current” TV which I have already picked my shows.
Now why ABC would cancel “Ugly Betty” for “Romantically Challenged,” is a question that needs to be answered.
whoa this show and cougar town do not belong in the same sentence. i caught the last 10 minutes waiting for castle and thought it was mediocre sitcom genericness. cougar town is hilarious and fresh.
Are you kidding? This show is way better than Big Bang Theory! Plus it has Alyssa Milano, can’t beat that!
No, it’s not.
WAAYYY too much laugh track. I made it through about 5 minutes before I switched channels.
This show simply can’t last! It’s not smart, edgy, modern or even remotely funny. In 30 minutes I smirked once. Couldn’t even get a full laugh out of me!
Everyone I know loved it… I didn’t. I thought it was Friends warmed over and kind of really not believable (who out there with kids and a job has the time to sit around a… um… cafe??) Yeah, it was a stretch when Friends did it, but this just seems like a cheap copy cat thing.
And… Alyssa… I like her but really, it’s time to lay off the botox.
Friends was OVER-rated anyway! oh, and Lizzy, don’t be a catty bitch, Alyssa is only in her early 30s.
wow i thought it would do really bad…like 4 million viewers….am glad for her
The laugh track killed it for me.
The laugh track wouldn’t have bothered me so much if the show was actually funny. The show was bad all the way around.
I didn’t watch Romantically Challenged because the promos looked awful (and judging from the comments here, I didn’t miss much). I like Alyssa Milano, but not enough to watch what looks like a terrible sitcom. And I’m once again annoyed with ABC for greenlighting a show like this after canceling the brilliant Samantha Who?
The thing most people with common sense realize is that most of the lowlife lying pansies on this website, EW, wouldn’t know a great show from garbage. Samantha Who??? Give us a break with that BS! Romantically Challenged had one of the funniest sitcom premieres of the season. I hope it only gets funnier and gets higher ratings to teach the lowlifes that troll up and down the entertainment websites trying to undermine everything not FOX that we know your game and you’re not that smart. Idiots!
Wow….Alot of harsh coments.
Liked it..reminded me of Friends.
Quit the hating people.
Bring the sit com back! Reality is done.
Lets laugh again!