Could ‘Kevin Can Wait’ Be Canceled After Erinn Hayes’ Firing Drama?
Could Kevin Can Wait be facing cancellation after the drama that followed actress Erinn Hayes’ firing from the comedy earlier this year? After seeing Kevin James’ on-screen wife was replaced on the show by Leah Remini for Season 2, some viewers are now calling for CBS to pull the plug on the show altogether.
After CBS attempted to promote the October 30 episode of the show across social media by calling it a “comedy of errors” on Twitter, a number of seemingly former fans lashed out at the CBS show with some even urging the network to cancel it entirely.
“Yeah, one big error…. #jumptheshark,” Twitter user @Formfeeder123 hit back in response to the tweet about the upcoming episode.
The series has now been moved to a new time of 8/7c p.m. instead of its previous timeslot of 9/8c p.m. on Monday nights.
Another then referenced their indifference to Leah joining the show by referring to her as her King of Queens character, Carrie Heffernan.
“Weak episode. Notice no Carrie in the promo (yes I said Carrie),” @RDCYN wrote. “Plus a move to 8 pm….CBS just pull the plug already.”
“To be honest, I don’t like it anymore because of Leah Remini. I’ve never been a fan of her acting,” said another.
It's going to be a comedy of errors. Don't miss #KevinCanWait tonight at its new time: 8/7c on CBS & CBS All Access: https://t.co/LiPafRG1e4 pic.twitter.com/3VPed2ogOm
— Kevin Can Wait (@KevinCanWaitCBS) October 30, 2017
The latest calls to cancel the comedy come shortly after a number of social media users called out the series for being too similar to James and Remini’s former CBS comedy, King of Queens (where Kevin and Leah played husband and wife Doug and Carrie Heffernan from 1998 until 2007), after Leah was promoted from a guest star to a recurring role earlier this year.
Many fans turned on the show after it was confirmed by producers that Erinn had been fired and that her character would be killed off – seemingly to make room for Leah.
The less-than-thrilled response from fans joined a number of calls for CBS to cancel the sitcom in recent weeks, namely because of the way those behind the scenes handled Hayes’s firing and the death of her character, Donna.
“@CBS You should really cancel Kevin Can Wait. You have killed the show,” @toddTsimon told the network on October 24. “You should have kept [Erinn] Hayes and hired better writers.”
“So many better ways they could have wrote Leah into the show!” said another. “CBS should cancel the show ASAP!! For SHAME Kevin James! #KevinCanWait.”
Others also urged CBS to cancel Kevin Can Wait and instead bring back King of Queens a decade after it left the air.
“I love @KevinJames & @LeahRemini but why do this 2 this show? Killing off [Erinn] was too much,” one fan said. “Hell just cancel #KevinCanWait and bring back #KingOfQueens.”
Hayes herself then made it pretty clear that she didn’t leave Kevin Can Wait on the best terms after fans slammed the show for barely addressing her character’s death in the first episode of Season 2 last month.
Appearing to confirm that there’s still drama behind the scenes, Erinn seemingly subtly urged her fans to boycott the comedy by liking a number of less-than-complimentary tweets about the series and her co-stars on social media earlier this month.
Notably, ratings for the second season have seen a pretty steep dip since the backlash began.
TV by the Numbers is reporting that 6.11 million viewers watched the most recent episode, “Greif Thief,” on October 23, which was more than 4 million less than tuned in to see the Season 2 premiere on September 25.
Season 2 of Kevin Can Wait airs on Monday nights on CBS.
[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]
