
EXCLUSIVE: It’s the end of the road for Comedy Central’s The Sarah Silverman Program, which has been canceled after 3 seasons despite a Twitter campaign to save it. The show earned Silverman a lead actress Emmy nomination last year. But it also was on the brink of cancellation in 2009 when she and fellow executive producers Dan Sterling and Rob Schrab threatened to quit after the cable network asked them to slash the series’ budget by more than 20%. A last-minute deal with sister network Logo was reached to co-finance the series,
so a 10-episode third season was ordered. But midway through Season 3, which wrapped last month, the network bumped the series from 10:30 PM to midnight, hinting at its intention not to continue with Sarah. At the beginning of the year, Comedy Central went through a regime change, with former New Line executive Kent Alterman taking over for Lauren Corrao as head of original programming. Silverman, meanwhile, is keeping busy promoting her bestselling book The Bedwetter and signing on to co-star in the Sarah Polley movie Take This Waltz.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.


wow, not even Logo could save the show! That’s a shame,It was a funny and creative show.
Silverman was and is pathologically unfunny.
I agree. Silverman is occasionally amusing, but her gratuitous vulgarity and bad taste don’t translate to funny, like Lewis Black or Monty Python.
Agreed. She and her show rely too much on vulgarity, without the necessary wit to pull it off.
OMG– f’ing puritans!! Why does everything have to be “translatable” to the masses?? Sarah is a genius. It’s just a shame that they can’t track genius on f’ing People Meters and Neilson boxes. She will find a new venue and she will reign supreme. GO SARAH!!
I LOVE Sarah’s show and her comedy, but it’s ridiculous to accuse those who don’t of prudishness and Puritanism. You are too quick with the name calling. Humor is a matter of taste. Different tastes for different folks.
When something is distasteful and unfunny, blaming Puritans doesn’t change the facts.
Puritans? How about alot of people find her UNFUNNY? Like I would probably find YOU unfunny.
The trash always gets thrown out, eventually.
Did you just compare Sarah Silverman to Lewis Black and Monty Python? !?
You, on the other hand, are the undisputed arbiter of humor. See how I laugh: “Ha!”
look… if i am looking for some warmed over vagina jokes…. i know where to go. but until then..
what you forget is… the consumers of comedy ARE the undisputed arbiters of funny. not OTHER COMICS. i know comics (i know the too well) … and no matter who it is, if she has a pulse and anything bigger than an A cup… she’s funny.
Or if she’s black.
Enough of us are the arbiters of what’s funny that her show got cancelled — as it should have been.
Yes, Sarah Silverman is unfunny. What’s worse, she trades on “cute,” with pigtails and cutesy faces. She’s the Victoria Jackson of our time. She is also very sexually attractive…gee, I wonder if she’ll still find work. Let’s ask Kate Hudson about that.
Agreed – NOT FUNNY
True, not as funny as Ann Coulter.
Maybe humor is in the eye of the beholder. The only time I saw her as not being funny was in “The Aristocrats”, but I found that film unbearable after only about 10 minutes.
Otherwise, I find her humor sarcastic, subversive, and hilarious.
And therein lies the problem. One does not “behold humor.” One laughs at it – or, as in the case of Silverman’s humor, does not laugh at it.
Yep, totally NOT funny.
I was talking to a guy recently who thought “Seinfeld” was “totally not funny.” It was quite obvious that he just couldn’t get the concept…
You are a stupid POS. Sarah has more brains and wit in her lovely a$$ than you have in your head.
Funny you should put it that way because that’s exactly where her brains are.
AGREED
see all my other comments. Then bend to my will.
Agreed. I’ve never thought she was funny or cute. I say that as not only a woman, but as a fellow comedian.
As a fellow comedian, as a fellow woman, a fellow cute woman at that, I have not stopped to think about whether she’s funny or not until now. Since most people here think she’s unfunny, I’m going to have to stop laughing at her jokes. And since I’m just as gorgeous as Sarah Silverman, I don’t have to wish her any failure or envy her. I used to laugh at Sandra Bernard’s humor but maybe I need to stop and think about restraining myself here as well.
Your implication being you DO wish failure for those less attractive than you. Wow, what a childish sentiment.
I always find it amusing when people say something or someone is not funny without adding (to them). Not only is Sarah Silverman hilarious she has an intelligent wit that is unique, fresh and shocking in the best way. Nothing is taboo to her and she joins the best of the new politcally incorrect comics. When you talk about subjects like racism, and sexism with candor you lessen the power they have over the masses. This is the aim of many of the new comics and Sarah Silverman is one of the brightest and most spontaneous comics of today. Next time just say, “Sarah Silverman is not funny to me”, instead of trying to be the spokesperson and critic for us all.
I notice you didn’t say she’s hiliarious “to me”.
Now THAT’S funny! And very apropos.
Brilliant, Alan!
Oh come on. You know what they meant. Now go watch your Beverly Hillbillies reruns.
You are patently retarded.
You are either retarded or have no sense of humor – sure it’s quirky at times but to say she isn’t funny means you must be a Cylon.
wow, what does it take for you to laugh? AND – I don’t think your show is that hot, either.
Where am i going to get my Sarha silverman fix. This blows donkey snot.
Woow, some people think way to much into this. Obviously, it comes down to person taste as to whether she is “funny” or not. The shit got canceled. That effing blows. stop picking at the little thing’s like her pigtails cause they annoy you
Sarah’s effing HIGHlarious <3
Funny and creative is in the eyes of the beholder. This beholder saw neither.
I’m with you on this one. I gave her a fair shot to entertain me and she did not.
Love YOUR show. Great ratings.
oh, i get it…because you have to have a show to be able to judge whether or not someone is entertaining, eh? Then your opinon is just as invalid as Marklemagne’s…idiot
Concur. I’ll also say I never thought Tina Fey was funny AT ALL, EVER, IN ANY WAY until 30 Rock. Now I think she’s very, very funny.
Tina Fey wasn’t funny until “30 Rock”? You are an idiot.
Thank the lord. It always felt like she was trying to hard to be funny. She looked alright but once you unmute the button, it was like damn. Why so whinny?
Her comedy sucks. I have watched this show on several occasions and I just don’t find it funny. I’ve watched her stand up and it’s not funny. If it weren’t for her being decently attractive, she wouldn’t have made it anywhere. Just like Janine Garafolo(sp) Back in the day when she was decent to look at she was kind of popular, but now she’s not. It’s not because she’s doing a different type of comedy either.
Her comedy sucks. Evidently she didn’t or she’d still have a show.
It’s about time.
Thank you Jesus!
She tried too hard to be funny but what she thought was funny was not. Kinda like loving Jesus but voting for war… you can’t have it both ways.
comedic genius. I Love Lucy Show? yes. Kathy Griffin? yes. Richard Pryor? Oh most definitely! Sarah Silverman? Hell to the NOOOO! I’m a half-baked potato. So, I like to watch my share of t.v. I gave this show every possiblr shot. Sarah Silverman Show did not work for me. And obviously it didn’t work for her. (pun intended!)
Hah! Wait. Let me get this straight— you put Kathy Griffin up with people like Richard Pryor(considered one of the first great black comedians to appeal to the masses) or Lucille Ball(I love lucy being one of the more influential shows in comedy)?!?!? Like, redhead, annoying Kathy Griffin? She’s worse than Sarah Silverman, and I freaking hate Sarah Silverman.
Two things are true here… 1)Kathy Griffin has no place anywhere near Richard Pryor or Lucille Ball and 2) Kathy Griffin IS worse than Sarah Silverman… But Sarah is creative and amazing so that’s not really saying much.
The people here criticizing Sarah Silverman need to lighten up and relax. What is your deal? Why so hateful?
Spew your misplaced internet hostility somewhere else.
Thank you! I guess “controversial” fits, huh? (seeing a all these people are so wound up over this)
it’s called free speech…..
Sarah is hilarious and the show was pure genius. I miss it already!
this was a great show. really under rated. im very disappointed.
This is one of the bravest and funniest shows on television.
HBO should be calling.
I’ve never understood why Maher and others call her “brave.” What are the consequences to her if she offends anybody? None. Controversy, in fact, just breeds more attention. So there’s nothing brave about her. Just over the top, and not always terribly funny. Much like Tom Green.
Tom Green was funny. Silverman is not…
tom green was not funny
yeah — tom green — DEFINITELY NOT FUNNY
Tom green is the most UNFUNNY everything
Brave because she’s not making the standard comedy show that is for the masses. She’s making a cutting-edge, subversive, counter-culture show that makes fun of anyone and everyone to point out how absurd the rules and boundaries of our society are.
And because of that, she will take some severe personal attacks as evidenced by the posts in this thread. Some people like their plastic, perfect, world…and they don’t like to be reminded that it’s a house of cards run by idiots, and they are often full of shit. They get offended.
She could do vanilla stuff and make more money. She’s done it before. But if you’re a comedian and you’re not pissing off half the people in your audience, than you’re just a clown. You’re a self-serving applause hound.
SS took the tougher road. But Comedy Central is heading more and more for mainstream, and it might belong in a place that takes pride in the niche. I think she’d thrive on HBO or any pay cable channel that does not rely on advertising for revenue.
I wish her luck and hope she’s back soon.
Here, here. Look at how they (Comedy Central) kowtowed to the New York Muslims re: South Park. Stewart was brilliant on that. I’m just afraid he’ll be next.
Yeah, that would have been brave fifty years ago. Now,… aaaaah, boring.
I don’t see you doing anything except maybe watching your t.v.
Here Here.
I don’t think she’s cutting edge, I just think she has no brain-mouth filter. She’s just profane and people who think they can’t talk like that in public live vicariously through her. More power to you, but I see nothing new here, only derivative drivel.
To the POINT! Thank you.
Agreed. I would say “the bravest” rather than “one of.” Every episode revealed a new taboo being pushed past the boundaries of television decency. Silverman is a comic genius. Meanwhile, Two and a Half Men continues unabated.
Yes they should! Oddly enough, I am speaking to HBO on the phone at this very moment.
It was FUNNY she had a show – and someone was BRAVE to put her unfunny show on the air. She gone now, FUNNY how things have a way of working out.
I wasn’t aware anything on Comedy Central or on HBO comedy(?) was remotely funny.
You cannot sense humor.
This was an awful show. Glad it’s gone.
Ryan, I feel sorry for you if this is the kind of news that makes you ‘glad’.
I am GLAD I won’t have to see her snarky little commercials on comedy central during the Daily Show.
Good bye!
i’m glad too. not only was it not funny… it was UNfunny
I think some people on here depend entirely too heavily on their need to be “entertained” – a dancing bear that craps in a glass then throws it at a poster of Smokey, his nemesis, would be dubbed comic genuis by some on here if it came from her when in my opinion its just random neurons firing in an effort to do something unique. That’s not comedy to me.
the reason a show gets cancelled is because it sucks…get the fuck over it.
You know what? I always liked it. But now that I have your [unsupported] opinion, I no longer like it. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT!!!
I am also GLAD it’s gone.
Sarah is great, and the show was pretty fantastic. Ok, some of it was a little more over the top than I cared for, but I always respected her for going there. She is a courageous performer. I think however, she needs to stop hiding behind her gross out humor and be slightly more mainstream with a touch of naughty. That is, if she wants to keep working. She should. She is delightful.
I think it would help if she stopped trying to “go over the top” and just tried being funny. I saw a Robin Williams special on the other night, I had to turn the channel, literally every other word was the F-bomb. I was embarrassed for him. Being witty without vulgarity is always harder to do…. and much funnier. Brains over vulgarity sells to a larger audience too. She might wind up on HBO late night with that other unfunny show, Bill whats-his-name.
Fuck you, Maher is God.
The reality is that cable doesn’t have the power we all think it does if there’s no big support publicity-wise.
A lot of homes have satellite and cable now. I don’t know the official numbers but assume it HAS to be more than 50%. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
Billboards and late night couch seats are fine, but when you’re competing with Network TV and your show is on a network that’s not known for a great amount of “original” programming and is on at an odd hour?
With so many cable outlets available, those channels become fringe elements.
We’re still stuck in the “old days” where adults now (38+) grew up in a time when there were only 3 networks so they’re still focused there mentally.
20 years from now it might be (and probably will) very different.
But for now, I think, Cable channels need to dig deep and get their PR folk working over time to promote and support shows heavily.
(Said another peanut in the gallery.)
I think three seasons is actually a pretty good run on Comedy Central for any show that isn’t South Park, the Jon Stewart Show or the Stephen Colbert Show.
The big question, though, is, why can’t Comedy Central figure out how to do something with Victor Vornado and Marina Franklin.
Upright citizens Brigade got 3 seasons and look at them
How exactly does the Colbert Report stay on the air??? His shtick is tired and unfunny and for the first 3 months he was on the air he bumbled his way through reading the teleprompter…that’s a guy I gave a fair shot — it’s like nerd humor which can be appealing to some, but not to me –
you are in way way way over your head here. CC (comedy central) is very capable of promoting a show that WORKS. they have ICONIC comedy programming like SOUTH PARK and THE DAILY SHOW. its not CC’s fault that her show sucked. it IS their fault that once again they signed a “talent” to a show rather than signing talent like producers and writers. Sarah is like every other loser show on that channel (tosh 2.0… oh wow.. how original is that title? circa 1999?) where the “star” wants their buddies on the show and the show sucks (mind of mencia comes to mind). BELIEVE ME.. i’ve been there!
Yep, 20 years from now cable shows will be like web sites, every unfunny comedian will have one…………. that nobody watches.
I consider myself SS’s biggest fan. I flat-out adore her. And for the first two seasons I also loved her show, but this season I found it god awful. Way too much emphasis on her couch-potato gay friends, who are well intentioned but not funny or vibrant in the least. I got so fed up with the show, I took it off my Tivo. I am glad CC put it out of its misery.
Clearly not her biggest fan. If you were, you’d have stuck with her through season 3. Even in the face of such stinkers as “The Way to Eden” and, dog help us, “Spock’s Brain”. Weird.
She could have saved season three if she had finished out the season topless. But there still wouldn’t have been a 4th season……. unless she could have brought in new hot topless guests every week.
I love the gay friends. The “Tab” thing? Brilliant. And the dad who had switched bodies with a geisha? Again, brilliant. I would watch a show that was just about them. Every member of the cast was hilarious–and I don’t even smoke pot.
Maybe you should.
agree with “regrets” may 11 comment. first two seasons did such a good job at parodying the sanctimonious, then the third season crossed the line so you couldn’t tell if it was becoming the very thing it was making fun of. also too many extraneous special effects and reliance on side characters. but those earlier episodes really were doing something unique, hats off for those.
I agree with your Season 3 comment — It got too polished all of a sudden — for having the budget slashed, it sure looked ALOT more flashy — and the jokes weren’t quite as raw…
Silverman’s act is okay, but it’s not amazing comedy. Show was not funny. The “can-you-believe-she-said-that?” smug schtick wears out fast, just ask Andrew Dice Clay. For better or worse, she’ll have a great career appearing as the “edgy” guest on shows like The Marriage Ref, Hollywood Squares, Regis & Kelly, etc. Now, you want to talk about Wanda Sykes or Maria Bamford? Those are funny broads.
Gotta love the Bammer!
Agreed. I’ve never thought she was funny or cute. I say that as not only a woman, but as a fellow comedian who has appeared on the same show with SS. Now Wanda Sykes is hilarious and cutting edge.
Yet another case of the critics and Hollywood loving her act — but the general public rejecting it.
Truth is, every decade or so another outrageous Jewish girl comes along, and it takes awhile before the media realizes that the rest of America doesn’t love her. Don’t believe me? Joan Rivers, Sandra Bernhardt, Sarah Silverman. Same song, same narcissistic act, same exact “push the limits of acceptable speech” ten years down the road.
Yes, I find her whole act tired and predictable. At 40, it’s heading into pathetic territory. And yes, I watched the show: I didn’t find anything particularly cute or funny about the episode where she thought it was “cute” to show her going for three (or was it four?) abortions. It was creepy. And as a Jew, I found her borscht belt Obama “get out the Florida vote with Bubbe” campaign incredibly retrograde, tired, and stereotypical.
Feel free to attack me, but don’t confuse book sales with a general audience (you can make the New York Times best seller list with 25,000 copies, if they’re sold quickly), and don’t confuse the incredible small niche of viewers she attracted on TV with the network’s need to draw eyeballs. For all the promotion, and all the chat-shows she appeared on, she failed to attract an audience.
And for the love of God, wipe your shoes when you come in from the yard! Don’t let the cat out! And close the door – were you born in a barn? You didn’t wear THAT around the neighborhood, did you?
I agree with this, A Woman in Comedy. There’s always something childish and off-putting about these marginal ‘talents’ whose whole schtick is pushing the limits.
What does Jewishness have to do with it? Sounds like a little veiled anti-semitism…….
How can a JEW be an anti-Semite?
Are you really “A Woman in comedy”? If so, your screed sounds like pure jealousy.
yep… EXACTLY!
and i could sign mine “a man in comedy” (but as a producer)
MEOW!!!!
Fantastic news… she’s really annoying.
A perfect show for HBO
really not funny: the show or silverman. not at all.
Policeman: “Miss, do you know why I’m pulling you over?
Sarah: “Because you got all Cs in high school?”
For that line alone, the show was worth it.
The fact you found this funny says as much about you as it does about her.
It’s snide, it’s smug, it’s elitist, it’s cheap and it rings false. You can bet that if the situation presented itself, she wouldn’t dare say it.
“…it’s elitist…”
Thanks for that, Joe the Palin.
Yeah, good grades are bad!
what a scold. That is the appropriate place for such a biting critique of the police: in a comedy tv show. You don’t watch comedy television much, do you? Most of what comes out of characters’ mouths would not be said in real life. Dullard.
Hackneyed tropes are never an appropriate place for comedy. “Biting critique…” now *that’s* funny!
Elitist? Cheap? Rings false? Sounds like you’re being elitist. It’s hilarious because it totally rings true. Not sure what shiny happy golden wondertown you live in but most beat cops aren’t rocket scientists. Go get yourself a humor adjustment by pulling the stick out of your rear and stop watching pablum on TV.
…so said by a schmoe on an anonymous comment board! Priceless.
Silverman: funny.
You: not so much. You sound angry and bitter. A little on the thick side. I see why Silverman threatens you. Move along.
You: not at all.
I didn’t see any attempt at being funny here. I saw someone trying to state their opinion.
Did you really say
This is one of the bravest and funniest shows on television.
The only thing Brave about it is the idiots that decided to finance and produce such crap actually admitting they financed and produced that crap.
Shes simply the worst,
I remember when Jenny McCarthy was popular and I wrote you will never find a more annoying woman…well we found her its Sarah Silverman.
Mrs Silverman you are welcome to go away now….far away.
… and please don’t come back. Ever.
I don’t need her to “go away”, I just wish her comedy appealed to me because I like looking at her. But that’s where my fascination ends, when she opens her mouth.
Mine ends a split second later, with something coming OUT of her mouth (words.)
Michael J. – Based on several of your comments, it seems you are really obsessed with putting things into your mouth.
I wanted to like this show so badly, and it was just absolutely grating to watch. Couldn’t make it through one episode.
I like SS, find her stand-up pretty fun and envelope-pushing, but this show was horrible. A bad sketch show, no decent stories, bad writing, lame all around.
God I f–ng hated this show. She is annoying and smug, so spectacularly unfunny. The poster child for what every fugly-former-high-school-outcast-who-now-has-power-in-the-entertainment industry thinks is funny.
Ha ha, you have no power in the entertainment industry!
Maybe he does…..the show’s cancelled, isn’t it?
This show was all sorts of terrible. Sorry, but I’m just not interested in hearing an unfunny “comedian” sing and discuss farting and pooping my pants. I’m also glad it’s gone.
Oh, no! I’ve never seen the show, but it seems like Comedy Central scewed the pooch on this one from what I’ve heard. Hope everyone ends up on even more successful shows. What a bummer!
Like most self-consciously ‘enveloping pushing’ comedians, Silverman was just shrill and obnoxious. Glad this dreck was put out of its misery.
Hey A Spouse: Comedy Central can’t figure out what to do with Marina Franklin because she has been doing the same 5 minutes for years! I guess they want the comedians they develop shows with to have more material that it takes to scramble an egg. Did you even see her when she did her one and only Jay Leno 10 PM segment. Awful.
That’s really a shame; I loved the show. I hope it ends up somewhere else.
It did, the garbage can!
How do you know that? Did it land on top of you?
Sarah’s show filled the niche long left vacant by Stranger’s with Candy. People that don’t find her funny don’t have different taste, they are simple minded plebeians. If you don’t like the gay plot line, it’s probably because you don’t know anything about ‘gay people’ or their culture, and therefore any jokes in this avenue would pass right over your faux liberal head. Maybe she should keep it to poo-poo, pee-pee and unemployment just so that the majority of Americans can understand where she’s coming from at a MINIMUM. Her May Kadoody (ahhh, lord) episode was amazing, as well as politically and socially poignant. She is saying something beneath the HILARITY. That is why her career will continue to grow. She’ll find something else. Comedy Network’s loss.
Really? If not laughing at racist cliched stereotype jokes makes me a “simple minded pleibeian” then so be it. Sarah Silverman is a hatemonger hiding behind a comic veneer. her fans find it funny when others are the butt of her jokes but never seem to laugh when they are part of the joke. There is nothing courageous or outlandish about her humor. At best, she has adolescent humor. AT worst, she is a bigot hiding behind your laughter. And since when has being a Silverman fan been any indicator about how friendly and familiar one is with gay people? She isnt gay after all.Besides, her attitude and skits are anything but liberal….she is just another neo-con tribes member selling hate to the general public.
Wow, SO VERY TRUE. Few people even realize that she is laughing AT us, not with us…typical jew loves those poop jokes…
I love that the gay characters were not in the least stereotypical.
Ok, so as a man holding a doctorate degree, upper-middle-class, world traveler, BUT I think she is bizarre and unfunny, I’m a “simple-minded plebian”? Someone has an inflated opinion of him/herself and his/her “taste,” and it’s YOU, Colleen
wow, and no. i live with two gay roommates… so scratch that arguement. i love lisa lampinelli, so… it’s not like i’m easily offended. i liked strangers with candy and i think amy sedaris is a genius, so again — my sense of humor is hardly restricted to what is mainstream.
but i have always found sarah silverman annoying. the only thing of hers that ever made me really laugh was the “i’m f’ing matt damon” thing… and jimmy’s comeback outdid hers, you have to admit.
while i’m not sad to see her go, i could care less if the show is canceled or not. if she stayed, i’d just keep doing what i did whenever her show came on (or dimitri, or tosh 2.0) — change the channel. i’m guessing i’m not the only one who did that, and that’s probably what led to comedy central’s decision.
I love Sarah — but i think “I’m fing Matt Damon” was the worst skit she ever did. Totally unfunny — so it’s all about comedic sensibilities — She is raunchy, nasty, disgusting, irreverant, and a generally pretty jewess (which I think can threaten some people) — so if you like that kind of humor, you’ll like her
There’s 30 seconds of my life I won’t get back. Thanks, Colleen. The name calling was nice, are you 12 yet sweetheart?
Sarah’s show filled the niche long left vacant by “My Mother the Car.”
The show was hit or miss. A lot of it was very, very funny. Some of it wasn’t. I’m sorry to see it go. Sarah’s brand of humor might be a better fit for HBO.
agreed — like any show on the air…
Thank Gawd CC is finally get rid of that piece of shit!
Silverman is as funny as an anal wart. How she lasted this long
with that stale shock-jock shtick she peddles as comedy is amazing to me.
Try squatting over a mirror sometime, I bet you’ll have a laugh. Anal warts are funny!