'The Chew' Fans Petition to Save Canceled ABC Series

It has been more than a month since ABC canceled The Chew and announced plans to replace it with [...]

It has been more than a month since ABC canceled The Chew and announced plans to replace it with an afternoon hour of Good Morning America, but thousands of fans are still holding out hope for the show to come back.

After the show's cancellation was announced, fan Pamela Nielsen launched a Change.org petition to save the show. So far, the petition has over 2,800 signatures, more than halfway to its 5,000 goal.

"ABC has announced the cancellation of The Chew after 7 seasons," Nielsen wrote. "It will be replaced by a 3rd hour of Good Morning America (a 3rd hour of a show with 'morning' in its name that will actually air after noon - hasn't that been done before - unsuccessfully?). This is a huge slap in the face to loyal Chew viewers. What caused this change? Are we all of a sudden not your demographic? Are the ratings not good enough? If not, compared to what?"

Nielsen cited a Disney/ABC press release celebrating The Chew's 2018 debut week, which notched season-high ratings. The show averaged 2.728 million viewers for the week of Jan. 1, 2018 and 502,000 viewers in the women 25-54 demographic. Unfortunately for Nielsen and The Chew fans, this was only one week of the season.

However, as The Wrap points out, the show's overall ratings for its latest season were not good. The show averaged 2.425 million viewers per episode, a 3 percent drop from the 2016-2017 season.

It was also the lowest-rated of the 13 network daytime talk shows in women 18-49, averaging just a 0.52 rating. That was a 13 percent drop from the previous season.

The Chew also finished 11 out of 13 in the 18-34 women demo, dropping 21 percent from last season to a 0.27 rating.

The series was canceled following the departure of Mario Batali, who has been accused of sexual harassment, assault and misconduct by multiple women, many of whom worked for him at The Spotted Pig restaurant in New York City. A New York Times expose of the restaurant published in December included allegations of a "rape room" and one woman said Batali was nicknamed the "Red Menace" due to his behavior. Batali was fired shortly after the report was published.

With Batali gone, Carla Hall, Clinton Kelly and Michael Symon were left to co-host the talk/cooking show hybrid. When news broke of the show's cancellation in May, the trio thanked fans for their love and support.

Fans remain disappointed with ABC's decision.

"I love The Chew, I DVR it everyday so as to not miss it," one fan wrote on Change.org. "I particularly love this trio combination. Please do something about keeping it on. Not much else worth watching on tv anymore."

"I love The Chew. I can't believe ABC is cancelling it but keeps The View. We don't need more morning news hours. I am done with ABC," another fan added.

This fall, ABC will air a third hour of Good Morning America in The Chew's old 1 p.m. ET timeslot.

Photo credit: ABC / Lorenzo Bevilaqua

3comments