"According To Jim" Returns To-Night For Eight Season

Since its debut in 2001, it has dropped from a high of 10 million viewers to 5 million for last season. It has never gotten even mildly favorable reviews, and most critics savaged it in its first year — then stopped watching, so sure it would be immediately canceled. The show was a mild hit the first two seasons, but has dipped ratings-wise every year since.

Yet According to Jim, which co-stars Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith, begins season number eight tonight at 8 p.m. on WKRN-2. There’s one big reason for the show’s continued survival, and that’s fiscal. It’s produced by ABC’s in-house production company, something that allows them to keep costs down.

Some other factors include the lack of pilot scripts and available new properties due to last year’s writer strike, plus the show’s rather strong performance in syndication. It’s consistently in the top 10 among broadcast properties being rerun on independent and super stations, and every additional season makes it a more lucrative vehicle in syndication.

While ambitious and daring shows like Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Arrested Development barely make it through two or three seasons, and other critical darlings like Friday Night Lights staying on the air only through shared development deals with multiple networks, According to Jim drones on.Put another way, we no longer have The Sopranos, The Wire or The Shield, but we’ve still got According to Jim. That tells you all you need to know about the state of network television in 2008.