Comedy Central Drops SportsDome and Sports Show

Both shows had low ratings (Though not really low for Comedy Central programming…) but were generally considered to be humorous takes on sports. Looking at my own personal scientific research, SportsDome was considered funny by 57% of respondents while Sports Show got 73% of the funny vote. The fact that neither study used a control group may have kept Comedy Central from renewing the shows. Next time, I’ll outsource the same poll to Oprah.com’s comments section.

Norm joked about a campaign to save the show, but also seemed pretty bummed on Twitter. Meanwhile the people from The Onion probably just went to work on making fun of the cancellation. They’re more of the faceless corporation of comedy.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but whenever I enjoyed the initial offerings from both shows and whenever I caught them later in their runs, they still provided some chuckles. Sports Show specifically had a rough time against the competition. After the first couple episodes, it started going head-to-head NBA and NHL playoff games. When your core audience is supposed to be made of sports fans, going up against live, important sporting events isn’t the greatest plan. Perhaps if Comedy Central tried running a repeat at any time beside midnight, either show could have gained a new fan or two.

Instead, Comedy Central chooses to run Tosh.0 marathons 5 times a week. Keep in mind, I rant as a fan of Daniel Tosh and his show. Comedy Central seems like a place that should put the emphasis on comedy before anything else and Norm MacDonald is funny. Perhaps Sports Show could have found a bigger audience during the NFL playoffs.

Will a sports comedy show ever work? (I mean, besides Joe Buck Live.) If The Onion or Norm MacDonald can’t pull it off, then who can?

[via A/V Club]