Well here’s a twist!
Despite initially being reported as a series pick-up by numerous media outlets, a story that the network quickly refuted, it would now appear that CBS has opted to pass on planned How I Met Your Mother spin-off, How I Met Your Dad. Greta Gerwig was set to play the lead role, with Meg Ryan serving as a narrator.
This is quite shocking, as it was believed that How I Met Your Dad would be a shoo-in for CBS’s 2014/2015 slate, particularly given the network’s tendency to stick to the show formulas that they know are successful. Apparently, the network passed on the pilot after creators, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas refused to re-shoot it.
This isn’t the first time that CBS has demanded a re-shooting of an entire pilot, including replacing most of the cast. The same demand was made of The Big Bang Theory, currently the network’s highest-rated and most successful sitcom after its cast shuffle and revised first episode back in 2007, even after the changes delayed the show an entire year from a planned 2006 premiere.
CBS chairman, Nina Tassler confirmed that she was, “Heartsick” at reaching an impasse with Bays and Thomas, but has also given the two blessing to shop the pilot to other networks, along with producing studio, 20th Century Fox. Tassler confirmed that CBS was unhappy with some of the pilot footage, and it’s likely that some of the highly polarized and scathing fan reactions to How I Met Your Mother’s controversial series finale had the network on edge about the spin-off as it stands.
How I Met Your Mother ran for nine seasons, and stands with The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men as being one of the most successful sitcoms in CBS history. The fact that the spin-off show is either being moved to another network or scrapped entirely is indeed a heartbreaking prospect.
Speaking of Two and a Half Men, CBS also confirmed that the troubled sitcom would finally be ending after its upcoming twelfth season, with a sliver of a chance that Charlie Sheen may be brought back for the series finale, despite his character being killed off after a very public meltdown and tussle with the show’s crew that led to Sheen’s firing. The sitcom was formerly the network’s most successful comedy, and the most viewed comedy on all of television, before it was surpassed by The Big Bang Theory on both counts, also from show creator, Chuck Lorre.
It would seem that CBS is really grooming The Big Bang Theory to largely keep their comedy ratings afloat almost single-handedly in this case. They’ve moved the show back to Monday nights for the early weeks of the upcoming television season as a result, where it now sits in CBS’s Monday night comedy block alongside Two Broke Girls and Mom, all airing before new drama, Scorpion in the late Monday timeslot. After the football games wrap up at the end of October, The Big Bang Theory is said to be returning to its regular Thursday slot with several of the network’s lingering comedies, and Sherlock Holmes-centric mystery drama, Elementary airing in its usual late Thursday slot afterward.
Mike & Molly, Mom, The Millers and Two Broke Girls do remain in CBS’s comedy lineup for the new season, though they enjoy noticeably lower ratings and acclaim than The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men and the now-wrapped How I Met Your Mother. The network’s only new high-profile sitcom for the upcoming season is The McCarthys, a show about an eccentric, sports-crazed family.
Were you pulling for How I Met Your Dad? Are you glad that the spin-off was rejected by CBS? Do you want the show to be picked up by another network, or would you rather that Bays and Thomas just cut their losses and did something else? Feel free to leave your comments below.
Eggplante is continuing to woo your news on How I Met Your Dad and the CBS network.