8 Years Ago, The Best Sitcom of the 2010s Was Saved From Cancellation (And It Lasted Three More Seasons)

While a lot of sitcoms were cancelled before they could fulfil their true potential, one iconic cult classic from Fox got a lucky second chance when another network picked it up instantly back in 2018. The history of television comedy is littered with sitcoms that didn’t last as long as they should have. From one-season wonders like Freaks and Geeks to shows that ended on unresolved cliffhangers thanks to their cancellation, like My Name Is Earl, there is no shortage of great sitcoms that were cut down in their prime.

However, not all of these shows are unfortunate enough to stay dead for good. Family Guy and Community were both famously revived after their apparent cancellations, and the former managed to last for decades after the fact. Similarly, although Fox cancelled the iconic workplace sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine back in May 2018, NBC immediately stepped in and revived the show only a day later. Thus, Brooklyn Nine-Nine enjoyed another three seasons before the cop comedy finally wrapped up in 2021 after a lengthy wait for its shorter final season.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine Was Cancelled (And Then Revived) On May 10, 2018

Debuting in 2013, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was met with instant critical acclaim. Season 1 of the series won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and gained an average of 87% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with the ensemble comedy’s rating soaring to a perfect 100% only one season later. Like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and many of the best workplace comedies of the era, Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s acclaim came from the once in a lifetime chemistry between its starry cast.

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Led by Andy Samberg, the show’s lineup included a blend of emerging stars like Stephanie Beatriz and Chelsea Peretti as well as screen veterans like Joe Lo Truglio and Andre Braugher, who put the gravitas of his earlier role in Homicide: Life on the Street to perfect use as the comically deadpan Captain Ray Holt. What made Brooklyn Nine-Nine so funny was the interplay between these characters, but this was not enough to sustain Fox’s investment in the series when its ratings began to wane in season 4.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Final Season Fell Victim To A Major Modern Sitcom Problem

While Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s seasons 1 and 2 averaged between 4.8 and 4.9 million per episode, that number dropped to only 2.8 million in season 4 and around 2.7 million in season 5. Fox cancelled the series immediately before its season 5 finale in May 2018, only for NBC to instantly pick it up for a sixth season whose ratings rose to 3.1 million per episode the next year. Sadly, although some of Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s best episodes came during its NBC era, the show’s ending still fell afoul of an unfortunate sitcom trend.

Like both Roseanne’s spinoff The Conners and its fellow breakout sitcom success of the 2010s, New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s final season was a truncated outing that only included a mere 10 episodes. This was particularly deleterious since the show hoped to address real-life problems in policing that became part of the public discourse in light of the protests after George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Without sufficient screen time to tackle big systemic issues, but unable to return to the cartoonish goofiness of earlier seasons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s muted final season struggled to find the right tone before a limp finale.