Samantha Who?

Samantha Who?
Format	Situation comedy
Created by	Cecelia Ahern Don Todd
Starring	Christina Applegate Jennifer Esposito Kevin Dunn Melissa McCarthy Tim Russ Barry Watson Jean Smart
Narrated by	Christina Applegate
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	35 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Don Todd Peter Traugott
Producer(s)	John Amodeo
Camera setup	Single-camera setup
Running time	Approx. 22 min.
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	October 15, 2007 – July 23, 2009
Status	Cancelled

Samantha Who? is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from October 15, 2007 to July 23, 2009. The series was created by Cecelia Ahern and Don Todd, who also served as producers. Although highly rated during its first season, the sitcom lost momentum and viewers throughout its second season, and ABC cancelled the show in May 2009.

Plot

The show centered around Samantha Newly (Christina Applegate), a 30-year-old vice president of a real estate firm who developed retrograde amnesia after a hit and run accident. Upon waking, she realized to her dismay that she had been selfish and unlikeable before her accident, and therefore set out to make amends and become a better daughter to her somewhat dysfunctional parents, Howard (Kevin Dunn) and Regina (Jean Smart), a better friend to self-centered Andrea (Jennifer Esposito) and needy but well-meaning Dena (Melissa McCarthy), and a better on-again, off-again girlfriend to her roommate and ex-boyfriend, Todd (Barry Watson). Wryly observing her transformation from "old Sam" to "new Sam" was Samantha's bemused doorman, Frank (Tim Russ).^[1]

Cast

• Christina Applegate - Samantha Newly
  
• Jennifer Esposito - Andrea Belladonna
  
• Kevin Dunn - Howard Newly
  
• Melissa McCarthy - Dena
  
• Tim Russ - Frank
  
• Barry Watson - Todd Deepler
  
• Jean Smart - Regina Newly

Episodes

U.S. television ratings

Standard ratings

In the following summary, "rating" is the percentage of all households with televisions that tuned to the show, and "share" is the percentage of all televisions in use at that time that are tuned in. "18-49" is the percentage of all adults aged 18–49 tuned into the show. "Viewers" are the amount of viewers, in millions, watching at the time. "Rank" how well the show did compared to other TV shows aired that week.

Unless otherwise cited, the overnight rating, share, 18-49 and viewing information come from Your Entertainment Now.^[2] The weekly ranks come from The Programming Insider^[3] and ABC Medianet.^[4]

^† This episode started at 9:45PM,^[5] so the ratings are estimated and are the average of the 9:30 half hour and the 10:00 half hour.

• For the first six episodes of Samantha Who?, the show held the title of highest rated sitcom,^{[citation needed]} a title which was held consistently by Two and a Half Men for the previous two television seasons.^[6][7]
• Samantha Who? was, for its first seven episodes, the highest rated sitcom which debuted during the 2007-2008 television season.^[8][1]

Without a strong lead-in (provided by Dancing with the Stars in its first season) and paired with another failing ABC comedy In the Motherhood, Samantha Who?'s ratings dropped to lows of around 4 million in its second season.

Seasonal ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Samantha Who? on ABC:

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, or occasionally early June, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Ratings competition

Samantha Who? first aired against fellow freshmen show K-Ville on FOX. It also aired against Rules of Engagement on CBS, Heroes on NBC and The Game on The CW — each in their second season. This was for the first six episodes Samantha Who? aired at 9:30pm.

On November 26, 2007, Samantha Who? shifted to the 9pm timeslot. Its competition shifted from The Game to Girlfriends on The CW and from Rules of Engagement to Two and a Half Men on CBS. Sophomore sitcom Notes from the Underbelly assumed the 9:30pm position.

Awards

Production history

Produced by ABC Studios and Brillstein-Grey Television, the series was officially greenlit and given a thirteen-episode order on May 11, 2007.^[10]

The show was originally named Sam I Am until ABC renamed it Samantha Be Good due to conflicts with the estate of Dr. Seuss.^[11][12] TV Guide later reported that ABC had changed the title of the series once more to Samantha Who?.^[13] Early television promotions for the series, playing off of the concept of its lead character's amnesia, appeared without stating any specific title. The lack of stated title (with a question mark shown instead) was attributed in promotions to Applegate's character not remembering the name of the series.

The series premiered on October 15, 2007 at 9:30PM Eastern/8:30PM Central and moved to 9:00PM Eastern/8:00PM Central on Mondays on November 26, 2007.

On October 25, 2007, ABC ordered 6 additional scripts for Samantha Who?.^[14]

On October 30, 2007, ABC ordered a full season of 22 episodes for Samantha Who?.^[15] However, due to the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike, only 15 episodes were produced for season one.

On February 11, 2008, ABC picked up Samantha Who? for the 2008-09 television season.^[16]

On October 31, 2008, ABC ordered 7 more episodes of Samantha Who? bringing the total number of episodes for the show's second season to 20.^[17] The announcement came in advance of mandated budget cuts at ABC Studios, which produces the series.^[18]

The series, which was filmed in the single-camera format, went on hiatus during the 2008-2009 television season and returned in a new timeslot on Thursday, March 26, 2009, following In the Motherhood before being pulled.

On May 18, 2009, ABC announced that they would not be renewing Samantha Who? for a third season.^[19] ABC burned off the final episodes on Thursday nights at 8:00PM Eastern/7:00PM Central from June 25, 2009 until the finale on July 23, 2009^[20] (with additional episodes airing Thursday, July 2 and Thursday, July 9 at 8:30PM Eastern/7:30PM Central.^[21][22]).

DVD releases

Samantha Who?: The Complete First Season was released on Region 1 DVD on September 23, 2008. The DVD collection includes all 15 episodes from the First Season.^{[citation needed]}
Samantha Who?: The Complete Second Season was released on Region 1 DVD on August 25, 2009 and contains all 20 episodes, although three of them are presented out of sequence at the end of the show's run.

International distribution

In Ireland, it is shown on TG4; in the UK, it is shown on E4 and Comedy Central; in the Netherlands, it is shown on NET5; in Latin America & Brazil it airs on Sony Entertainment Television. In Poland, the series premiered on October 13, 2008 on Fox Life. It first aired in France on Virgin 17, on October 19, 2008. In Malaysia, the series premiered on November 14, 2008 on ntv7. In Japan, the series premiered on January 11, 2009 on AXN. In Sweden, it premiered on January 18, 2009 on TV4 Sweden. In Hong Kong and Macau, it airs on TVB Pearl. In the Philippines it aired on Star World. In Turkey and Spain, it is shown on TNT.In Turkey it is also shown on ComedyMax. In Portugal, it is shown on the channel RTP 2 and MOV. In Australia it will start airing on Seven's new free-to-air digital channel 7Two mondays at 7:30pm from Nov. 16, 2009.

References

External links

• Samantha Who? at the Internet Movie Database
• Samantha Who? at TV.com
• [2]