Comedy Central cancels Onion SportsDome and Sports Show With Norm Macdonald

By Sean O'Neal | June 21, 2011 | 2:46pm

Aux Features TV

Comedy Central’s experiments with sports are at an end, at least for now: The network has canceled both Sports Show With Norm Macdonald and Onion SportsDome, the latter of which we’re obligated to mention comes from the same people who sign our checks. But even if we weren’t (in a very literal way) invested in the future of SportsDome, the news would be distressing, as it seemed like both it and Sports Show had just begun to find their rhythms before their respective season finales. Unfortunately, what they didn’t find was a big enough audience, with SportsDome averaging around 1.5 million viewers and Sports Show 1 million, numbers that were nearly met or exceeded by their time slot successor Jon Benjamin Has A Van, which premiered at 1.1 million (a series whose future now looks shaky as well). And with Tosh.0 now setting the bar for Comedy Central programs, apparently they were found wanting.

For The Onion, there’s still the second season of the Onion News Network, which was picked up by IFC—and of course, there’s a website you should check out. For the eternally mistreated Macdonald, however, he lamented the loss of yet another show to EW, saying, “I like doing a funny show where I don’t have to act and fall in love with a girl,” and mentioned starting “an Internet campaign to save the show, almost like they do with shows about witches and vampires and aliens from outer space.” He then added, “Maybe I’ll call [the network] and ask them to bring it back. I’ll say, ‘Just bring it back. How much could it hurt television, really?” Which is a good point. Television has become so inured to its years of abuse, we’re pretty sure it doesn’t feel anything anymore.