Sitcom Mike & Molly to end after shortened 6th season
Billy Gardell, Rondi Reed post about 13-episode 6th season as show's last
Mike & Molly, one of TV hitmaker Chuck Lorre's stable of populist comedies, is saying goodbye after its forthcoming season.
Stars of the sitcom, led by Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell, have gradually revealed the news to fans via social media.
Last week, Gardell posted a Tweet about the upcoming sixth season — debuting in early January — as being the show's final, truncated one.
Mike and Molly returns Jan 6, it will be our last episodes. There are 13 of them. Thank you everyone who supported us. 🙏🙏❤️❤️
—@BillyGardellLaunched in 2010, Mike & Molly stars Gardell and McCarthy as a couple who meet at Overeaters Anonymous, fall in love and marry.
The show's debut coincided with McCarthy's rise as a big-screen comedy star (in films such as Bridesmaids, Identity Thief, The Heat, Tammy and Spy) and also earned her an Emmy Award for lead actress in a comedy in 2011.
Actress Rondi Reed, who portrays Gardell's mother on the show, expanded via Facebook, saying that the series would end shooting in late January and would run shorter than previously announced.
"Before you hear it elsewhere (and some already have) this is the final and sixth season of Mike & Molly on CBS. It is also a shortened season (13 episodes) after the announced full renewal of 22 episodes back in March by the network," she wrote.
The show's cancellation leaves Lorre with two sitcoms on CBS: perennially popular The Big Bang Theory, starring Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons and Kaley Cuoco, and newer series Mom, starring Allison Janney and Anna Faris.
Lorre's previous comedies include Two and a Half Men, Grace Under Fire, Dharma & Greg, Cybill and Roseanne, where he began his TV career as a scriptwriter.
