Will FOX’s Feminist ‘Party Over Here’ Get Canceled For Bad Ratings?
Is FOX‘s Party Over Here going to be a comedy show that feminists are excited to share on social media for the rest of the year … or will it be canceled?
Debuting in March, FOX‘s Party Over Here comedy sketch show is already getting reviews… and it seems that some think it could be cancellation-worthy. This could be a real disappointment to some reviewers because they see Party Over Here as a positive feminist or female-centered comedy show.
Guardian‘s Brian Moylan initially described Party Over Here when it debuted on March 12 and stated the first episode was positive because it was “all female” and did not make anyone have the “are female comedians funny?” conversation.
Despite this, Moylan also wanted to let his audience know that, while he thinks that everyone should watch Party Over Here, he also had the following disclaimer.
“[R]ight now, Party Over Here needs a bit of fine-tuning. Maybe in a couple of weeks?”
After the second episode aired, the reviews for Party Over Here were definitely coming in, and there were only a couple of bad reviews compared to many good ones. Namely, the idea that many reviewers like about Party Over Here is that it is a comedy while also being feminist or female-centered.
Even though the show has not been on the air that long, Party Over Here‘s producer and director, Paul Scheer, spoke with Uproxx and stated upfront that they knew they were going to have some bumps in the ratings because they already knew “sketch comedy isn’t tune-in TV worthy.” Instead “sketch comedy is best watched at a computer, shared via Facebook and Twitter, and all that stuff.”
Nevertheless, after only three episodes, it seems that the show Party Over Here could get dumped by FOX eventually if they do not work well with the Standards and Practices Department … AKA “the censors.”
Of course, one of the main reasons the show is important culturally is because it deals with the glass ceiling in comedy and feminist topics. Regardless, while it might be great comedy fodder for feminists to share on Facebook, could Party Over Here be up for cancellation because it is too sexy?
Although there are many factors going against Party Over Here such as the sexiness-prone nature of sketch comedy angering the FOX censors, the typical low-ratings Saturday nighttime slot, and a few bad reviews … Paul Scheer said that FOX executives are “fighting for the show.”
This is especially good news since Party Over Here might not fare well compared to sketch comedies on other networks that do not have the network censorship and prudishness working causing them to use their energy on a rigid re-writing process.
For example, at FOX, Scheer says that Party Over Here comedy writers are put under a lot of pressure because they are always doing rewrites because they are “responsible for what the audience might think or imagine” especially when it comes to sex.
Sadly, the pressure from FOX‘s Standards and Practices Department could put Party Over Here in troubled waters with reviewers because other networks do not restrict the creative flow of their comedy sketch writers. One somewhat negative review comes from The Wrap, and they ends their analysis of Party Over Here with the following.
“It’s foolish to rush to judgment on Party Over Here, but still, we live in a crowded marketplace stacked with great sketch and alternative-comedy shows. Amid a flood of excellent comedy options out there on television, [they] are thus far merely treading water.”
While it may not be allowed to be “too sexual,” Party Over Here has become a favorite of feminist reviewers.
On the other hand, Mashable points out that Paul Scheer said “I was like, ‘Well if we’re going to do something let’s do something different. Let’s make it led by three amazing female comedians, but let’s not make that the thing.'”
Regardless, feminism in the scripts and females leading the cast are “the thing” that a lot of media reviewers are admiring. An example includes Bustle‘s writer Emma Lord that said Party Over Here‘s “Mansplaining Hotline” sketch was “a work of art dripping in sarcasm so thick that I want to put it in a cake.”
Alternatively, writer Jeff Jensen from Entertainment Weekly thought that when Party Over Here did in fact over-emphasize that they were speaking to and intending a feminist audience for their show in the first episode, the reviewer found it to be somewhat negative and stated the following.
“In a wink designed to draw attention to the show’s admirable feminist orientation, the stars revealed that their ’15 white male cast members would not be returning.’ It was a just slap at the historical lack of minority representation on TV, but it also felt slightly behind the moment…”
A few days after the Entertainment Weekly review, Party Over Here star, Jessica McKenna, interviewed with The Mary Sue around March 16 and stated what could be interpreted as a type of rebuttal.
“[T]here’s this lantern on women in comedy in kind of a double-edged sword kind of way, where we more we talk about how great it is to be a woman in comedy now, the more we sort of accidentally put across this message that we’ve done it somehow… which is so not true.”
Outside of the feminism theme, Decider stated that Party Over Here is doing an overall good job even when they do fumble because SNL consistently proves that the sketch comedy genre can be difficult to get right.
However, Paste quotes Paul Scheer saying that they are less like SNL and more like Key & Peele (and less likely to get canceled in the long-term since they may be able to “reinvigorate FOX’s ratings”) because Party Over Here is unique.
Specifically, Scheer said Party Over Here is “a certain style of comedy that’s not being represented” and that it invites the audience into the show in because “It’s more character bits, bits involving the audience. It’s a much more communal experience where [the audience is] a part of the thing.”
Party Over Here airs every Saturday night on FOX at 11 P.M. EST.
[Picture by John Parra/Stringer/Getty Images]
