If you’ve been trying to keep straight the airing pattern for ABC’s long-suffering Tuesday comedies Happy Endings and Don’t Trust The B—- In Apt. 23, don’t bother; it’s been a mess. ABC just made it a little clearer by yanking Apt. 23 from the schedule effective immediately. While ABC does not call this a cancellation, the decision de facto seals the fate of the for the low-rated sophomore comedy whose unaired episodes are likely headed for summer. On Twitter, Apt.23 co-star James Van Der Beek called the move for what it is: “Sad to say ABC has pulled #Apt23 and will not be airing the 8 remaining episodes any time soon,” he said. “Translation: we’ve basically been cancelled.”
With Apt. 23 gone, ABC will double pump its time slot companion, Happy Endings in the Tuesday 9 PM hour until the block is dissolved on March 19 and replaced with the Dancing With The Stars results show. Here is a brief summary of the two comedies’ scheduling history this season. They were originally slated as an anchor of a Tuesday comedy block that was supposed to launch with Happy Endings and Apt. 23 in September and expand to two hours in midseason. Late last year, ABC decided to abandon its Tuesday comedy block altogether come March. Left with extra episodes of Happy Endings and Apt. 23, the network scheduled three weeks of double runs for the comedies in their regular Tuesday slot as well as Sundays at 10 PM in January. A week ago, that plan was scrapped too after two Sunday airings, with the shows’ run limited to Tuesdays. Now Apt. 23 is being pulled. The ABC Tuesday comedy block is scheduled to be preempted by the two-hour premiere of new cooking reality series The Taste this week, so the double-pumping of Happy Endings in the hour will start next week. Apt.23 averaged 3.7 million total viewers and a 1.5/4 in 18-49 on Tuesdays this season.
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