The Cleveland Show's Surprise Cancellation Explained
Here's why The Cleveland Show was cancelled after season 4. In an alternate universe, Family Guy is a cult animated sitcom that was prematurely canned in its third season back in 2002. Thanks to strong DVD sales and a growing fanbase it was miraculously resurrected in 2005 and has been running ever since. Its resounding success also made creator Seth MacFarlane a hot property and he went on to co-create American Dad!, which has now lasted for seventeen seasons.
MacFarlane also branched out to movies with mixed success, scoring a major hit with Ted and a miss with A Million Ways To Die In The West. He's currently living out his Trekkie fantasies by playing the lead in well-received sci-fi comedy The Orville. At the height of Family Guy's success it was only natural for the network to attempt a spinoff, which led to The Cleveland Show. The series centered on Peter's neighbor and friend Cleveland Brown (Mike Henry) and his son moving back to his hometown. He and his ex-girlfriend Donna (Sanaa Lathan) reconnect and the two soon marry, and they have to learn how to be a family with their respective children; the show also has a talking bear named Tim, because of course.
The Cleveland Show's comedy was very much in the vein of Family Guy, but its formula never gelled in the same way. The series had its moments, including a recurring role for David Lynch as the bartender of The Broken Stool. Still, it never quite gained the same popularity as its mother series, and towards the end of its fourth season rumors started to swirl it wasn't going to return for another year.
While these reports were initially denied, The Cleveland Show was ultimately cancelled. The reasons it didn't reach a fifth season are pretty straightforward - its ratings gradually dipped with each passing series and reached a low during season 4. It appears the final two seasons of The Cleveland Show might have been produced solely to nudge it towards the syndication threshold, which it just about reached with 88 episodes in the season 4 finale.
If The Cleveland Show had returned for a fifth season, it likely would have been to push it over 100, which is commonly considered the golden number. Cleveland and his family didn't find themselves out of work for long, however, as they joined the cast of Family Guy again in season 12. Mike Henry announced in 2020 that he was stepping down from the role of Cleveland in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, stating that a character of color should be voiced by people of color; the role has yet to be recast, though actor Wendell Pierce has stated an interest in taking the part.