Ratings: How long till Work It’s cancelled?

Full disclosure: I did not watch the series premiere of ABC’s Work It yesterday (a new sitcom in which two men cannot find a job, so they dress up as women; *though I’m watching as I type this…). Also, I very much want Cougar Town back on my TV screen — so much so that it’s my top wish for 2012. So if you watched Work It and feel offended by this post, I apologize in advance.

The problem isn’t that cross-dressing guys isn’t funny, I’m sure it is to many people (Monty Python, guys!) it’s just not funny enough for an. entire. series. Think about that. How long should series run? Hopefully 5 years to meet that magic number episode, if you’re lucky right? Can guys dressed up as women really be funny for five years? And this isn’t even delving into the issues the LGBT community apparently has with this show, which are much more dimensional than my problems with it.

The fact of the matter is that the faster a sitcom on ABC is cancelled, the faster I can get Cougar Town back on my TV (and as much as I dreaded Last Man Standing when I actually watched that, I have a feeling Work It‘s worse; **it’s not, actually).

According to TV by the Numbers, Work It debuted to 6.144 million total viewers and a 2.0/5 in the all-important 18-49 demographic. That’s actually pretty decent, if you’d ask me. And it’s actually 78% retention in viewers and 83% retention from its lead-in Last Man Standing (7.9 mil and 2.4/6 in the demo), which is respectable. (Also, it’s technically still the holidays for many around the country.)

However, given the normal 20% drop from the first week to the second week for series, 5 million viewers and a 1.6 will not be enough to stay on air for much longer.