‘Murphy Brown’ Future CBS Reboot Uncertain As Series Creator Says Show Is ‘Not Canceled’

The reboot of CBS’s Murphy Brown is coming to a close for the network moving into the winter of 2019. No further episodes of the series have been ordered thus far after its initial 13-episode run.

The series, which stars Candice Bergen, Faith Ford, Joe Regalbuto, Grant Shaud, Charles Kimbrough, Jake McDorman, Nik Dodani, and Tyne Daly will end in the last weeks of December.

The Hollywood Reporter noted that CBS ended not only Murphy Brown but the Damon Wayans Jr. series Happy Together.

Both series will clear room on the schedule for the rookie comedy Fam and the third season of the Matt LeBlanc show Man With a Plan.

A return date for the fourth season of Life in Pieces will be announced at a later date.

The reboot series was always intended to be a closed-ended order of 13 episodes. The Hollywood Reporter did state that the comedy still remains in consideration for a renewal. Series creator Diane English attempted to clarify the news in a statement on Twitter.

“Murphy Brown fans. We are NOT CANCELED!!!!! Several entertainment sites read a midseason schedule put out by CBS that did not have our show on it and the assumption was made that we were not renewed,” English explained via Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.

“Our order, at our request was 13 eps. We look forward to a second season.”

A Season 2 (or technically, Season 12) has not been officially ordered, although the series still remains in consideration for a renewal.

“The first couple of weeks were very emotional,” said series star Bergen about the reboot after not playing the role in two decades, per the Hollywood Reporter,

“It was eerie seeing the set, exactly the same as the one that stood in Burbank for 10 years — only it smelled of sawdust because it was brand new. So far, I haven’t been able to get through a curtain call without getting weepy.”

The comedy Fam, starring Nina Dobrev and Tone Bell, will take over Murphy Brown‘s slot starting Thursday, January 10.

The sitcom, which originally ran from 1988 to 1998, starred Candice Bergen as the title character, an honorable investigative TV journalist, recovering alcoholic, and independent single woman.

Murphy Brown was fearless in tackling sensitive subjects, one of the first in primetime television to do so.

The show consistently used Murphy’s position as a journalist to address important, contemporary issues. Although Murphy was a single woman on the show, she wanted to “have it all” and her desire to have a child out of wedlock was a hot-button issue particularly in 1992 when then-Vice President Dan Quayle chided the series for taking the aforementioned position for their lead character.

Entertainment Weekly noted that Bergen won five Emmy Awards for the role and took herself out of the running to be considered for more.

Murphy Brown wraps its freshman season reboot on December 20.