Accidentally on Purpose – liked by viewers?

Image courtesy of TV Guide

According to TV Guide, it is – this week’s episode, “Fight Club,” got 8.54 million viewers. It’s surprisingly stacking up pretty well with CBS’s other Monday Night Comedy line-up — How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, and Two and a Half Men, which have season averages of 8.96, 9.33, and 13.94 million viewers, respectively. Not too shabby, considering the popularity of the established sitcoms.

To be honest, I was pretty surprised. The show is about a 30-something woman named Billie (Jenna Elfman) who has a one-night stand with 20-something Zack and ends up pregnant. Cute premise, but there was an overabundance of cheesiness in the premiere, and some of the characters seemed too over-the-top. And not many people (at least not the ones I know) are talking about it – it’s not getting nearly the exposure that another new CBS show, The Good Wife, has.

Actually, I was beyond surprise: I figured the show would last the semester, then be replaced after the holidays. In fact, I was thinking about Jenna Elfman’s previous show, Courting Alex – cute idea, mid-season entry, got cut after that one half-season. In my mind, Accidentally on Purpose was headed in the same direction.

But apparently not enough people were thinking that. In fact, CBS is picking up 5 more episodes. That makes it still 4 short of a full 22-episode season, but if the ratings continue to be good, there’s always time to order more — and to pick it up for a second season (though I may be getting a little ahead of myself there).

Every season, good shows with cult followings are being cut without regard to their popularity and to the intense annoyance of their fans. It seems that almost every show is on the line — who knows what’s being cut next? And regardless of stupid decisions being made by some networks over and over again (yes, NBC, I’m talking to you), every season there are new shows that get cut pretty quickly.

It looks like this year — or for now, anyway — Accidentally on Purpose won’t be one of them.