TBS’ efforts to become a new home to late night television has faltered. Although Conan O’Brien’s Conan continues to live on, the network has failed again to create a hit to follow him. The Pete Holmes Show was just cancelled after two seasons.
Stand-up comedian Pete Holmes got the post-Conan slot in February 2013, but it will not live past this June. Holmes’ final episode will air on June 5 after over 70 episodes.
“We recognize Pete as one of the most relevant comedians working today,” TBS said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “We loved the show and gave it two chances, we just couldn't draw the audience needed to justify a third round. We hope we'll get to work with him again.”
Despite O’Brien’s Team Coco co-producing Holmes’ show, O’Brien’s audience would often tune out when Holmes began. The show only averaged 500,000 viewers a night, losing 350,000 Conan viewers.
While Holmes is gone, O’Brien will remain at TBS. Just last week, O’Brien signed a deal to stay on the cable network through 2018. Perhaps by then, TBS will finally have a hit show after him.
Conan is one of the rare late night cable success stories outside of Comedy Central’s Daily Show and Colbert Report. Comedy Central did recently score a hit with @midnight with chris Hardwick, but MTV has cancelled Nikki & Sara Live and FXX has ended Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell.