Showtime Cancels Its Advertising-Themed Comedy, Happyish

Another advertising-themed TV series is following Mad Men off the air. Showtime has canceled its comedy Happyish, the network has confirmed.

The series, about a disillusioned ad exec (Steve Coogan), finished its first season last month and won't be renewed for Season 2. 

It's rare for the premium network to cancel a show after just one season, especially given that Showtime Networks president David Nevins was a big supporter of the show. He kept the series going even after its original star, Philip Seymour Hoffman, died in February 2014.

The show didn't make a dent in the ratings. Its June 28 finale was watched by just 163,000 adults ages 18 to 49 in live-plus-three ratings. And Happyish also came up empty-handed in last week's Emmy nominations. Given how important Emmy nominations are to the network—Nevins told Adweek that what sets Showtime apart is "breadth and depth of our original series. Last year, eight of our nine shows were Emmy-nominated"—its Emmy shut-out meant the writing was on the wall. 

Though the show often skewered the business that Auslander loves to hate, ultimately "I don't think it's a show about advertising," he said. "I think it's a show about happiness."

The show had made some early waves by defiling the Keebler Elves in its debut episode. Nevins had hoped that buzz would continue—he said the show's other parodies of famous ads "will be the things that will generate a lot of conversation"—but that never happened.