Broadcast History By Season
The show debuted in its time slot on November 14, 2001 with solid ratings in spite of a weak lead-in, Grounded for Life. The show had a very successful first season and in the process won a handful of honors including an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series" and the prestigious Peabody Award. Bernie Mac also received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.
In Fall 2002, the show aired against the Damon Wayans comedy My Wife and Kids which may have hurt the show's momentum in the ratings during the first half of its second season run. Larry Wilmore, the show's creator and executive producer, was fired at this time. In interviews, Wilmore said he was fed up with the network's creative interference with the show, in addition to Fox constantly shuffling it around the schedule. Fox contended that it wasn't happy with the show's direction under Wilmore in the second season, claiming the show "wasn't delivering enough laughs". With The Bernie Mac Show 's inability to topple My Wife and Kids in the Wednesday 8 p.m. timeslot, Fox eventually aired the show after American Idol, after which it received its highest ratings ever.
The third season was scheduled to start on October 29, 2003 but was postponed due to The O.C. being moved. Instead the show started the season at the late date of November 30, 2003. The ratings were mediocre despite the large ratings of its lead-in, The Simpsons. In March 2004, the show was moved to Monday nights in a plan to boost ratings for the new show Cracking Up, but the ratings were low for both shows. Cracking Up was canceled and The Bernie Mac Show was pulled from May Sweeps with leftover episodes that aired in June (one of which included an episode about Thanksgiving).
The show returned to its original time slot on September 8, 2004 to start the fourth season. The production was shut down a month later due to Bernie's sickness. The show returned on January 14, 2005 with new episodes on Friday nights. Although the ratings were low enough that commentators questioned the show's future (especially when it was postponed from May Sweeps again), the show was renewed for a fifth season.
The fifth season started September 23, 2005 on Friday nights and airings were followed by reruns of the show.
The Bernie Mac Show celebrated its 100th episode on February 3, 2006 despite the fact that the actual 100th episode was not aired until March 31.
Read more about this topic: The Bernie Mac Show
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