In what could be seen as a show-stopping one-two punch, the Fox network has removed all traces of the military-themed comedy “Enlisted” from its spring schedule, and two of the show’s three male leads have been cast in a new comedy pilot — this time as cousins, instead of brothers.
But the show’s creator has promised fans via Twitter that the first season’s remaining unaired episodes will be broadcast at a time to be determined, and that the show has “a fat heartbeat (according to the network).”
Kevin Biegel even led a “live-tweet” on April 11 during which fans watched the show online, since it’d already been removed from its regular Friday-night time slot. A letter-writing campaign to Fox and a #SaveEnlisted movement online are in the works, but multiple industry-news outlets have classified the show as “certain to be canceled” based on its ratings performance. For example, the March 28 show earned a 0.4 rating in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic, which reportedly doubled when delayed viewings (via DVR) were factored in. That’s still less than a re-air of ABC’s business-contest-themed “Shark Tank,” which pulled a 1.2 without the delayed viewings.
A recent Army Times editorial pushed for the network to move the show into a better time slot. Biegel frequently thanks military audiences online for their support, saying the heavy military presence in San Diego helped make the recent live-tweet event one of the city’s most popular Twitter topics.
“Enlisted” features three brothers stationed with a rear detachment at fictional Fort McGee, Fla. (official motto: “Yes, we’re soldiers”). The actors playing two of those brothers, Geoff Stults and Parker Young, are set to join the cast of “Cuz-Bros,” a CBS comedy pilot in which they’ll keep their family bond: Young will play Stults ne’er-do-well cousin, according to multiple entertainment-news websites.
Stults and Young reportedly signed “second position” deals with the pilot, meaning they’d stay in uniform should “Enlisted” return to production. And “Cuz-Bros” is far from guaranteed a spot on the TV dial — more pilots fail than succeed, and other CBS comedy pilots set for this season include a remake of “The Odd Couple” and “How I Met Your Dad,” a follow-up to the network’s just-ended ratings monster “How I Met Your Mother.”
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