The handwriting has been on the wall of that cute li’l architecture firm for weeks, and now it’s real: CBS has finally cancelled the low-rated Partners, its one and only new sitcom for the season, effective immediately. The net will run repeats of its far more successful comedies for the moment, possibly bring the reliable chestnut Rules of Engagement out of limbo for a few weeks, and then try again with a new show, Friend Me, in 2013.
After a couple of seasons of successful launches, this has been a less-than-stellar year for CBS. Four new series were introduced this year–Made in Jersey, Partners, Vegas and Elementary. Of that group, Jersey was the first cancellation of the season on any network and Partners was dead almost from the outset. Meanwhile, Vegas and Elementary opened to strong numbers that have been fading steadily; at this point, neither one is doing significantly better in the ratings than the shows they replaced (though there will be one last attempt to goose Elementary when it shows up in the coveted post-Super Bowl spot in January.)
CBS also showed some unexpected promise in including Latinos in its programming both old and new this year…but some of those advances have faded as well. Felix Solis went down with the Made in Jersey ship; Manny Perez was supposed to be part of the Elementary supporting cast, but never made it past one episode. Aimee Garcia was added to the Vegas ensemble for all of two or three episodes, in a nearly invisible supporting role, and has since disappeared. And now Tracy Vilar and Partners is gone as well. It must be bittersweet at best of Tracy: she only appeared in some of the episodes, and was never elevated past “guest star” credit, for a role that was often dismissed as “Sofía Vergara lite.”
Ironically, the last episode of the show that anyone will ever see was about Tracy’s character “RoRo” going on vacation and “the boys” searching in vain for a replacement. Looks like the vacation will be permanent now…for everyone including stars Brandon (Superman Returns) Routh and David Krumholz…who deserved far better from the outset. And to add insult to injury, CBS has already stripped its online episodes of Partners off its web site, CBS.com. If you try to load the page, you get a flat white response: “Show not available!”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
