Viewers won’t be finding out “How I Met Your Dad” after all.
CBS on Wednesday confirmed it has passed on the much-anticipated “How I Met Your Mother” spinoff for next season, with CBS entertainment chairman Nina Tassler saying, “There were elements of pilot that didn’t work out.”
She said the network asked producers to redo the pilot, but that they weren’t interested. “I don’t know what’s going to happen from this point on,” she added.
“How I Met Your Dad” was expected to be a lock for the fall schedule given the success of “How I Met Your Mother” for nine seasons and the network’s relationship with creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays. The spinoff was to star indie darling Greta Gerwig as Sally, a New Yorker getting divorced from her first husband who has no idea what she’s doing with her life.
Now that CBS has officially passed on the series, studio 20th Century Fox Television could look to shop “HIMYD” to other networks.
Also on Wednesday, CBS announced that “Two and a Half Men” will end its run after its upcoming 12th season.
Series creator Chuck Lorre is “creating a season-long event” to mark the show’s farewell, Tassler said. “Chuck is very psyched about this; he’s got some great ideas and very big surprises,” she told reporters.
Once one of TV’s biggest sitcoms, averaging close to 20 million viewers, “Men” lost a bit of its oomph after original series star Charlie Sheen, who played randy jingle writer Charlie Harper, was fired in 2011 after publicly lambasting Lorre and CBS.
Sheen was replaced by Ashton Kutcher — playing Internet billionaire Walden Schmidt — and the Charlie Harper character was subsequently killed off.
Angus T. Jones left the show after Season 10 and was supposed to appear intermittenly last season, but that never transpired.
Jon Cryer has played Charlie’s brother, Alan Harper, since the show’s 2003 premiere.