No afterlife on cable for ‘Earl’

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Sorry, ‘My Name is Earl’ fans, it looks like the show is really over.

After a very brief flirtation with TBS, the show’s producer, 20th Century Fox Television, has decided it will not look to extend the comedy’s life on the cable network.

As we thought all along, the issue was price. Although apparently the studio didn’t even let talks get that far, telling the cable network that counts among its talent roster Ray Romano, Holly Hunter and Jada Pinkett that it probably couldn’t afford the show and ended discussions. In a statement, 20th Century Fox Television said it didn’t want to ‘seriously undermine the artistic integrity of the show.’ When it was pitching the show to broadcast network Fox, it was looking for $2.5 million to $2.6 million per episode.

Turner, which generates north of $1 billion in revenue, probably would not have gone that high in price, and the studio didn’t want to go below $2 million. We are curious though as to why the studio wouldn’t entertain a real conversation.

-- Joe Flint

--Credit: Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee/20th Century Fox Television