Failing to live up to Monday's high ratings standards, the sitcom from "Will & Grace" co-creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick gets the network's second cancellation of the season. Comedy repeats will take over the time slot.
CBS' golden launchpad is no longer infallible.
Monday's 8:30 p.m. half-hour, which catapulted series How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly and 2 Broke Girls into network hits, did not work out for Partners. The network's only new comedy of the fall has been canceled. Comedy repeats will air in its time slot starting Nov. 19.
Despite the network's patience with the ratings-challenged series, its most recent airing hit a series low, notching a 1.8 rating in the key adults 18-49 demo. A repeat of Two and a Half Men will air Monday.
Created by Will & Grace scribes David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, the semi-autobiographical comedy about lifelong best friends and business partners -- one gay, one straight -- debuted to a soft 2.4 rating among adults 18-49 despite a strong lead-in from How I Met Your Mother. It also posted premiere week's smallest DVR growth in Live+3 ratings, only 8 percent. Its second episode dropped 13 percent to a 2.1 in the demo.
This wasn't the first time Kohan and Mutchnick had tried to get this series to air. The duo have been pitching some iteration of the project since before Will & Grace debuted in 1998. Their most recent series, $#*! My Dad Says, also was canceled by CBS -- though it did get an 18-episode season.
Partners starred David Krumholtz, Michael Urie, Sophia Bush and Brandon Routh.
Partners joins fellow freshman Made in Jersey in the canceled column this season. The drama starring Janet Montgomery was yanked after two airings on Fridays. Meanwhile, rookie dramas Elementary and Vegas have earned full-season orders, with the former earning the coveted post-Super Bowl slot.