CBS is in damage control mode: Me, Myself & I has been pulled from the network’s Monday night schedule. After a ratings spike last week, the most recent episode, episode 6, hit a season-low, dropping to a 0.7 in the A18-49 demographic, and 3.91 million total viewers. This could be due to a switch to a weaker lead-in, with Season 2 of Superior Donuts replacing Kevin Can Wait at 9pm. The Oct 30 premiere of Superior Donuts pulled in approximately 1.5 million viewers less than Kevin Can Wait, putting the struggling Me, Myself & I at an even bigger disadvantage.

Alex Riley in nail-biting suspense: Will “Me, Myself and I” be cancelled? PC: CBS.com

The removal of the show was deliberately buried within a press release titled, Second Season of “Man With A Plan” to Premiere Monday, Nov. 13 on CBS. The network’s only mention of the show was that it “will return to the schedule at a later date.” The show’s usually active and loquacious Twitter account has been oddly mum since the announcement. While CBS plans to air the remaining 7 episodes in the 13-episode order, the show will very unlikely get a season 2 renewal.

In an unusual turn of events, following a month of ratings decline, episode 5 of Me, Myself & I saw a ratings uptick on October 23. Total viewers increased by 8.6% to land at 4.6 million. The increase in total viewers is likely due to a night of higher PUT levels, as Kevin Can Wait at 9 PM, 9JKL at 8.30 PM, and The Big Bang Theory at 8 PM saw increases in total viewers by 2.4%, 7.6%, and 1% respectively.

Interestingly, while total viewers increased, Me, Myself & I’s A18-49 demographic rating remained stagnant at 0.90. Conversely, lead-in, Kevin Can Wait, and 9JKL both saw upticks in the money demographic. This tells us that Me, Myself and I struggles to appeal to viewers in the A18-49 range, as they tend to drop off after watching preceding CBS sitcoms. Me, Myself and I may target millennial men through their ad spots, but it likely reaches an older demographic, possibly due to the star power of John Larroquette (playing 65-year-old Alex Riley).

The CBS.com ads for the pilot of Me, Myself & I were mostly targeted at professional, millennial, male technology enthusiasts. They heavily featured brands in the automobile category, such as Cadillac Escalade and Subaru Crosstrek, and the technology category, such as Google Pixel 2, Microsoft Office 365, and Samsung QLED TV. The commercials often included millennial male actors, fast-paced techno or mainstream pop music, as well as urban slang, like “hipster.” Moreover, there were multiple promos for CBS’s sci-fi series, Star Trek: Discovery, which draws in a largely male fan base, passionate about futuristic science and technology. The advertising neatly aligns with the content of Me, Myself & I, as the show revolves around the inventions of tech geek, Alex Riley.

Alex Riley’s invention, a table stabilizer, featured in the pilot of  Me, Myself & I. PC: CBS.com.

Interestingly, there were two ads that fell outside this millennial male audience segment. There was one for The Universal Orlando Resort and one for rheumatoid arthritis medication, Xeljanz XR, aimed at families with young children and elderly people respectively. This could be due to the broad appeal of the show, from children to retirees, since the narrative spans Alex’s life across his childhood, professional life, and retirement.

Me, Myself and I has a clear Twitter strategy: get online users to watch existing episodes through links to CBS.com (no authentication required) and CBS All Access.

As expected, the tweets that get the highest engagement are not the ones that simply include cast interviews or show scenes, but use identity-defining polls to excite users to share their opinions. For example, one poll asked if users were team pancakes or waffles? It received over 440 votes, while video tweets averaged about 100 likes. Another issue is that the videos emphasize the characters’ and actors’ everyday triumphs and failures, but if you’re not already a committed fan, this will mean little to you.

Everyone from cast members to writers of the show came together for a mass live tweet during the pilot, and have since been consistently promoting the show on Twitter. Creator, Dan Kopelman, went so far as to create an account just to promote the pilot on 9/25.

While Me, Myself & I has made a notable and concerted effort on Twitter, they better develop stickier content if they want to entice nonfans to watch the show.

Cast members of Me, Myself & I live tweet during the pilot on Sept 25, 2017.

Me, Myself and I is not failing critically or commercially (yet), but it is not thriving either. Now in its second week, the ratings fell by 0.6 to land at 1.0 for A18-49. In online reviews, it received a lukewarm 62% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer.

While the show certainly went through the pains of achieving the three-tiered narrative between young, middle-aged, and old Alex, as described in its logline, critics lamented that the structure did nothing to enhance the story. In fact, The Hollywood Reporter criticized Kopelman for even including the future, as he lacked the vision or insight to execute it. More than one critic described the show as a failed attempt to replicate NBC’s This Is Us, which also toggles between decades, albeit much more purposefully and successfully. Me, Myself and I’s problem is not that it failed to live to its logline, but that it only lived up to its logline.

On September 25^th, the pilot of Me, Myself & I premiered to a 1.6 rating for A18-49 and a total audience of 7.46 million viewers. It was the lowest performer in CBS’s comedy lineup. The night started off strong with the pilot of Young Sheldon raking in 17.21 million total viewers, but there was a high attrition rate, as 7 million viewers left before Kevin Can Wait, and 3 million before Me, Myself, & I. While the high drop off rate was expected considering Young Sheldon’s cult following, Me, Myself & I still performed significantly lower than CBS’s 2016-17 primetime average, set at an impressive 9.65 million total viewers (leading all broadcast networks). This means that, even with its favorable Monday night spot, Me, Myself & I still fell below the mark of an average CBS primetime show, airing on any given day of the week. Since audiences tend to decline as a series goes on, this is not a good sign for the future of Me, Myself & I.

The countdown has begun: it’s 2 days to the premiere of Me, Myself & I. As expected, social media buzz for the show lags behind the highly-anticipated, Young Sheldon, which premieres on the same night. Today, Young Sheldon has 10 times the number of Twitter followers and 14 times the number of YouTube views for its first look preview.

Interestingly, social media posts heavily feature interviews with Bobby Moynihan, and not the equally prominent John Larroquette. This could be because social media users, particularly on Twitter, tend to fall in the younger 18-49 range, and will likely be more familiar with the former SNL star.

Compared to YouTube and Facebook, Twitter is the platform where Me, Myself & I has been the most active and received the highest engagement. This is both because of the nature of the platform, which allows for high posting and re-tweeting frequency without fatiguing fans, and the type of content that thrives on Twitter. For example, because of the show’s strong ties to basketball (young Alex is obsessed with Michael Jordon), a cast member interviewed Lakers owner, Jeanie Buss. The clip garnered 239 likes on Twitter but only 9 on Facebook, underscoring the prominence of sports-related content on Twitter.

During its primetime Monday slot, Me, Myself & I competes with Dancing with the Stars season 25 on ABC, So You Think You Can Dance season 14 on FOX, and The Voice season 13 on NBC. Me, Myself & I serves as excellent counter-programming. Firstly, it is the only scripted show on broadcast TV, and may appeal to escapists on a Monday night, looking to unwind after the start of the workweek. Not only are the other 3 shows unscripted, they all fall within the reality-competition format, which some audiences may find manipulative or anxiety-inducing.

Secondly, these long-running series have captured the higher end of the W25-54 bracket, by perfecting the art of using household celebrity names, easy banter between judges, and sentimental stories of participants. This leaves the door wide open for Me, Myself & I to bring in M25-54 and B9-14, as the multi-generational sitcom offers an inside look into the adventures and mishaps of a 14, 40, and 65-year old man. The CBS comedy likely wants to encourage co-viewing amongst fathers and sons. However, at 9.30 p.m. on a school night, the sitcom may be positioned a little after young boys’ bed times.