Viewers may still love Michael J. Fox, but his new sitcom wasn’t the comeback he and NBC executives were looking for.
Although The Michael J. Fox Show was one of the network’s top prospects last fall, the series has been yanked from the Thursday schedule after earning poor ratings and will be replaced by Hollywood Game Night, a network source said on Wednesday. The change was first reported by Vulture.
Of course, NBC’s entire schedule is about to be pre-empted by the Sochi Olympics that start this week. But “Fox” might not be back even after the Games are over. The entire order of 22 episodes for this season has already been shot; 15 of those have already aired. It’s possible the remaining episodes will be shown in April, but the network isn’t committing to anything at this point.
The Michael J. Fox Show starred Fox —- star of the 1980s sitcom hit Family Ties, the Back to the Future films and later Spin City — as a newsman who returns to work after a debilitating illness. In real life, Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but has kept working as an actor, in addition to pursuing fundraising and advocacy work.
