It’s Official: ‘Mike and Molly’ Canceled at CBS

It’s official: CBS’ Mike and Molly is ending.

Network entertainment president Glenn Geller confirmed at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour that the current sixth season of its Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell starrer would be its last.

The Warner Bros. Television-produced comedy hails from Chuck Lorre (Mom, Big Bang Theory) and marks the prolific showrunner’s second comedy to end in as many years. (The network parted ways with veteran Two and a Half Men last season.)

The formal announcement comes after news leaked in December that the network would not continue on with the family comedy. Star McCarthy, who has turned into a box office A-lister whose status has not helped the comedy find a broader audience, is in the last year of her contract for the series. Both McCarthy and Gardell spoke out about the then-apparent final season of the series:

“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,” she wrote. Added Gardell, who has been doing press and openly discussing the final season before the network officially confirmed as much: “Mike and Molly returns Jan 6, it will be our last episodes. There are 13 of them. Thank you everyone who supported us,” he wrote.

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The comedy in the recent past had shifted from a fall launch to become a dependable midseason bench player. Mike and Molly returned for its sixth season Jan. 6 as part of CBS’ new Wednesday comedy block with fellow WBTV comedy 2 Broke Girls. The block will run for seven weeks; it’s unclear when its remaining episodes will run. Season six marks the first time the multicamera series has received anything but a 22-episode order.

CBS, for its part, has had a strong fall with all four of its freshman series earning full-season orders. The net has a crowded bench with rookie comedy Angel From Hell — produced in-house by CBS Television Studios — as well as WBTV remake Rush Hour set for Thursdays in March, with Elementary moving to Sundays and bumping CSI: Crime Scene Investigation from the schedule. 

Production on the final episode of the series will be completed Feb. 1, with the actors now available to move on to other projects in the middle of pilot season in first position.

Of CBS’ remaining comedy roster of six scripted comedies, three hail from WBTV (2 Broke Girls as well as Lorre’s Big Bang and Mom) as well as CBSTVS‘ The Odd Couple and Angel From Hell plus 20th TV’s Life in Pieces.

As for the future of Person of Interest, which EP J.J. Abrams said would likely be its final season, Geller wouldn’t officially close the book on the long-running drama. The series, which was left off both the fall and midseason schedules, is slated to return “in the spring,” Geller said.