It’s the end of the road for FX comedy Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll.
Sources confirm to The Hollywood Reporter that the Denis Leary starrer will not return for a third season. FX declined to comment.
Created by, starring and executive produced by the Rescue Me alum, the comedy ended its second season last week after averaging 680,000 total viewers with three days of DVR. Produced by FX Productions and Fox Television Studios, the show has seen its ratings go down considerably from its freshman run, when the comedy, co-starring John Corbett, ranked as the third-most-watched new primetime scripted comedy on basic cable among total viewers and adults under 50 (with seven days of DVR). Recently, among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demo, SDRR drew only 305,000 total viewers with three days of DVR.
Speaking to reporters at TCA, FX president John Landgraf said he uses a formula when determining renewals and cancellations. “I and my team get one vote, you and the other experts get one vote, and the audience gets one vote. Two votes gets a show picked up, but we overrule a two-to-one vote against us for a time if we believe either the audience or the experts will come around based on the quality of the show,” he said.
The decision to cancel SDRR comes days after FX opted not to continue with a third season of Howard Gordon’s Middle East-set drama, Tyrant, though producer Fox 21 insists there’s a future for the series and is shopping it to streaming outlets.
The demise of
SDRR comes as scripted music series continue to struggle to find the right tone, though
THR chief TV critic Tim Goodman called the FX rock ‘n’ roll comedy a “note-perfect look at music, aging and family.” On its part, HBO opted to cancel
1970s drama
Vinyl after
pre-emptively renewing it for a second season, and ABC
canceled country-music drama
Nashville, though the latter was revived at little-watched Viacom
cabler CMT. Meanwhile, the future of Showtime’s Cameron Crowe music drama
Roadies remains up in the air.
With the cancellation, FX’s comedy roster now includes Baskets, Louie, Atlanta and Better Things, as well as FXX’s You’re the Worst, Man Seeking Woman, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Archer.
