Son of Zorn

Status: Cancelled
Aired: 2016-17, One Season Totaling 13 Episodes
Network: FOX
Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Johnny Pemberton, Cheryl Hines, Tim Meadows, Artemis Pebdani
Series Website: www.fox.com/son-of-zorn

Description: Featuring the voice of Jason Sudeikis (THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, “Horrible Bosses,” “We’re the Millers”), SON OF ZORN is a new hybrid live-action/animated comedy about an animated warrior from a faraway island in the Pacific Ocean – where everything and everyone is animated – who returns to Orange County, CA, to win back his live-action ex-wife and teenage son. ZORN (Sudeikis), the Defender of Zephyria, Conqueror of the tribes of Agon, decapitator of the dark herdsmen of Grith, has fought in countless epic battles throughout his life, but may find the greatest challenge of all when travels back to suburbia to reconnect with his family. Once there, Zorn finds himself estranged from his son, ALANGULON or just “Alan” (Johnny Pemberton, “21 Jump Street”), a 17-year-old with a mellow, P.C. attitude; and Alan’s mother, Zorn’s ex-wife, EDIE (Cheryl Hines, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”), a former wild child now living the life of an upper middle class mom. Zorn’s efforts to win them back are complicated by the fact that Edie is now engaged to CRAIG (Tim Meadows, “Saturday Night Live”), an online psychology professor and a stable presence in their lives. Nevertheless, to be a good dad, Zorn commits to remaining in Orange County for the long haul, renting an apartment and even working in the exciting field of industrial soap sales under his boss, LINDA (Artemis Pebdani, “Scandal,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”), who likes his passion, but just wants him to rein it in at the office. As he adjusts to life in the suburbs, Zorn is the classic fish out of water, navigating his way through fatherhood, divorce and a boring office job. Sure, as an overlord of pain, he defeated glombeasts, wolf-bats and bloodthirsty arachnobots, but now he’ll go toe-to-toe with a new set of enemies: meter maids, dress codes and the DMV. FOX.com

Why Was It Cancelled? If you look at this show’s season average of a 1.3 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic, that actually looks quite good for a FOX show for the 2016-17 season.  But then it benefited multiple times from a strong lead-in from NFL Football on Sundays in Fall.  If you look a the episodes where it did not have a boosted lead-in, its numbers were typically mediocre at best.  Since FOX had little in the way of hits during the season, there was a chance that this one might stick around for a second year.  But apparently it was pretty costly to produce because of its mixture of animation and live action and the show never really developed much of a fanbase.  FOX decided to let this one go, liking hoping to find a cheaper sitcom to take its place.

Season to Date (StD) Ratings Results:

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