by Josh Hudson
This new CBS comedy originally aired on September 24, 2012. Considering the time slot, it was a rather dismal ratings performance. Much like the acting and the writing.
4 people, 3 couples. That’s the unofficial tagline of this show. If you can’t read between the lines, I’ll translate:
This show won’t be on the air long.
Partners is a semi-autobiographical story about its creators, David Kohan and Max Mutchnick. One’s gay, one’s straight, and they spend a lot of time working together, but also have their significant others to tend to. Sure. Sounds like something no one in America wants to see.
There are good actors involved in this project, with Michael Urie and David Krumholtz playing Joe and Louis – the Partners – and Brandon Routh and Sophia Bush playing their significant others Wyatt and Ali, respectively. I mean, one of those guys was Superman!
Maybe if he put on a red cape, he could save this show.
There are some bright moments (I believe every comedy that hits the air has at least one or two decent jokes in the pilot) but it mostly fell flat. The worst part? Not a lot of chemistry between the actors. And when the show revolves around relationships, that can’t be a good thing.
There were a lot of high hopes for this show, especially because of where CBS placed it on its schedule (Monday nights, between ratings darlings How I Met Your Mother and 2 Broke Girls) but when it’s not topping out at 7 million overall viewers, and it’s on CBS, that’s a recipe for cancellation.
I write this with optimism. And no, it’s not that I think that Partners will some how survive, but that CBS will bring back one of my favs, Rules of Engagement, earlier than expected. There’s always one show every year that has high hopes and fails to deliver what Rules always does.
Sadly, two of the last three years, it’s been shows from KoMut (Kohan/Mutchnick) Entertainment.
