For many, 2 Broke Girls will always hold a special place in their hearts.
For others, it was a largely forgettable sitcom that heavily relied on crass humor that all
too often fell flat.
The series which was produced by Warner Bros Television and aired on CBS, premiered on
September 19, 2011, and ran for six seasons before being abruptly canceled in 2017.
The comedy was all about two young female waitresses who struck up an unlikely friendship
while working at a greasy spoon diner in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New
York.
Caroline Channing, played by Beth Behrs, was the sharp-tongued daughter of a billionaire,
while the quick-witted street smart Max Black grew up in poverty.
Despite hailing from two very different walks of life and having two very distinct sets
of life experiences, the titular girls join forces in an attempt to raise funds to start
a cupcake business.
Since its debut, 2 Broke Girls received a mixed response from both viewers and critics
alike.
Some found the show to rely too heavily upon sexual innuendo, racial humor, and outdated
stereotypes, while fans praised the on-screen chemistry of the two lead characters.
Even though the show was extremely polarizing, it went on to be nominated for 12 Emmys, winning
one for art direction in 2012.
Viewership started out strong.
Season one was viewed by almost 20 million.
Season two onward, however, saw a steady decline in viewers.
By season 6, just 6 million viewers were tuning in to the program.
That being said, plenty of television shows with a significantly smaller audience than
that manage to be picked up for additional seasons.
In this facts-packed video, we'll be discussing whether it was a matter of creative control,
scheduling, or money that brought about the end of this memorable, albeit divisive, sitcom.
In the process, we'll be taking a look at the scene that took 2 Broke Girls off the
air for good.
CBS Had An Overly Stocked Comedy Inventory
CBS' head of scheduling Kelly Kahl was quoted by Deadline in 2017 as saying that while 2
Broke Girls was a well-performing show for the network for a pretty long time, the fact
that the show had been on the air for as long as it had been put a lot of pressure on its
producer's to keep it fresh.
Kahl went on to explain how the CBS had begun to feel like, creatively speaking, it was
about time to create space on their schedule for newer products.
Kahl believes that the decision to plug on the show was much more of a creative decision
than anything.
But then again, on the business side of things, it wasn't a show that CBS actually owned.
The series was the work of Warner Brothers.
CBS had merely picked it up, and by picking it up, they also had to cover its costs.
For the WB, 2 Broke Girls was very profitable.
It was earning the studio $1.7 million an episode just on TBS alone.
For CBS, however, it wasn't nearly as lucrative, and with a full schedule of comedies like
Young Sheldon slated to air in the fall, it made more sense to let other offerings take
a stab at things than to grant another season to a series that already was on the decline.
"The Filthiest Show On Television"
2 Broke Girls wasn't afraid to lean heavily upon sexual innuendo for its humor.
From jokes about the male anatomy and sexual positions to a discussion of porn and masturbation,
2 Broke Girls felt more like something that you would see late at night on a subscription
cable channel like Showtime or HBO than what you would expect from a primetime sitcom on
one of the major networks.
The fact that the comedy aired on a broadcast network in a time slot where the FCC normally
prohibits profane speech upset many viewers, who ended up flooding the FCC's website with
countless complaints.
Some of these complaints have since been published on the governmental transparency website Governmentattic.org.
One viewer compared the show to 'soft-porn' before expressing how shocked they were to
hear the B-word used loosely on a primetime show when children could potentially be watching.
Another disgruntled viewer begged the FCC to 'do their job' by removing the show and
others like it from public broadcasting systems.
Reportedly by 2016, over 100 viewers had filed informal complaints with federal regulars
about 2 Broke Girls' content – the majority of which cited crude sexual epithets uttered
by the show's main characters as being the source of their frustration.
Right out the gate, 2 Broke Girls made no attempt to hold back in terms of its sexual
content.
For example, in the very first episode, a diner customer asks Max where his waitress
ran off to.
The audience then hears a loud scream off-scream which is implied to be sexual in nature.
We later learn that the customer's waitress was indeed having sex in the kitchen.
Later there's a crude joke about a suspicious stain on the waitress's uniform.
You might be wondering how a show like this got away with its boundary-pushing content.
Well, even though the scripts were jam-packed full of cutting jokes about sexual acts and
crude anatomical references, they were always conveyed through veiled, albeit heavy-handed,
innuendo.
In a 2012 interview at that year's Television Critics Association winter press tour, one
of the show's co-creators, Sex and the City's Michael Patrick King, defended the show by
praising its writing for being witty.
He went on to say that it was a very different world than the 8:30 timeslot on CBS back in
1994 and that he considered the jokes on the show to be as he put it 'classy dirty' and
'high lowbrow'.
While King might have been proud of his creation, the critics weren't nearly as pleased as he
was.
Beginning with the show's first season, critics took issue with the show's problematic cracks
about ethnicity and race.
Minority supporting cast members such as Matthew Moy, who played Han the Korean diner owner,
were often reduced to stereotypes.
Hopefully, if you've made it this far, you've been enjoying this video.
If so, take a moment to show us a little support by giving it a like and by subscribing to
the Facts Verse channel.
And don't go anywhere just yet.
Keep watching to learn how 2 Broke Girls ended and who might have made a guest-starring appearance
in season 7 if the series had been renewed.
It Ended On A Cliffhanger
When 2 Broke Girls was canceled at the end of its sixth season, it left viewers forever
in the dark about who Max's mom was.
Her mother was set to make her debut in the season 7 debut, but the oft-mentioned but
never-seen character would never get a chance to see screentime.
Rumor has it, Max's mom was going to be played by the legendary 'Turn Back Time' singer Cher.
Talks had been underway for Cher to guest-star on the program when the news broke that the
series would not be coming back for an additional season.
It makes you wonder what it would have been like to see Cher in that role.
She could have been the perfect pick for playing Kat Kenning's mother.
The singer's style and energy were an excellent match for Max's, and as seen in her previous
film roles in movies like Moonstruck, Cher would have been able to bring a lot of emotion
to the complex mother-daughter situation alluded to throughout the series.
Instead of seeing Max and her mother reunite to work out their differences, the show instead
ended with Max getting engaged and her and Caroline's cupcake shop fund going back down
to zero.
While that might have been seen as somewhat of a disappointing ending to some, at least
the girls found some success as small business owners.
In the end, they owned a share of the diner and had a thriving dessert bar – so it wasn't
a total loss.
It might not have been a total fulfillment of their hopes and dreams, but at least viewers
got to see the two highly ambitious women achieve a level of professional and personal
satisfaction.
Many Stories Left To Tell
While six seasons is a pretty decent length for any television series, fans had hoped
that the show would have been picked up by another network to continue its run.
As such, there are countless 2 Broke Girls stories that were left untold.
Not getting a chance to arrive at any real place of resolution with Max and her mother's
relationship stands out as being the most frustrating – especially when imagining
what it would have been like to see Cher in that role – but it's still abundantly clear
that being a part of the show brought a tremendous amount of joy to Behrs and Dennings.
After it had been announced that 2 Broke Girls was officially kaput, the two actresses released
a joint statement via Twitter detailing their devotion to their fans and the strong friendship
that they formed during the show's production.
While it certainly would have been nice to see Caroline and Max spend another couple
of seasons chasing after their dreams together, it'll still be nice to see where Behrs and
Denning's careers end up taking them.
As far as Kat Denning's acting career goes, she most recently played the character Darcy
Lewis in Disney+'s 2021 Marvel mini-series Wandavision.
Since 2018, Beth Behrs has played Gemma Johnson on CBS's The Neighborhood.
It'll be interesting to see how 2 Broke Girls is remembered going forward.
20 years from now, will it be viewed as fondly as shows like the King of Queens and Everybody
Loves Raymond, or will it be all but forgotten?
Only time will tell.
Anyway, we'd love to hear your take on things.
Were you a fan of 2 Broke Girls, or were you one of those who thought that the show was
too raunchy for its own good and not very funny?
If you do think that the show has some redeeming qualities, which characters would you say
made it worth watching?
Let us know in the comments.
Before you go, take a moment to show us a little support by giving this video a like
and by subscribing to the Facts Verse channel.
While you're at it, tap the bell to turn on notifications.
That way, you'll be able to keep up with all of our latest and upcoming videos as soon
as they drop.
As always, thanks for watching.
We'll see you soon with more videos covering some of your favorite films, television shows,
and stars.
Take care!