Whitney Information

Whitney is an American sitcom that premiered on NBC on September 22, 2011, where it aired in the 9:30 pm (E/P)/8:30 pm (C) Thursday night timeslot. The show stars Whitney Cummings and is based on her real-life experience and her comedy routines. On September 25, 2011, the pilot of Whitney was multipurposed on various NBCUniversal networks, including Oxygen, E!, Style and Bravo; it last aired on E!.

NBC moved the series to Wednesday beginning January 11, 2012. On May 11, 2012, NBC renewed the series for a second season, which was to premiere on October 19, 2012. On October 8, 2012, the premiere date for Whitney was delayed by NBC to give it proper marketing. On October 18, 2012, NBC announced it would air the season 2 premiere of Whitney on November 14, 2012.

Synopsis

The series follows Whitney Cummings, as she portrays a fictionalized version of herself, and her very supportive live-in boyfriend, Alex. Even though the two have decided that they will not commit to marriage, she does question how committed they are in their 3-year relationship and tries to go as far to prove a point. She begins to fear what she sees as "relationship boredom" and worries what will happen next that could possibly end their relationship. Because of what she sees and hears around her involving other relationships, she uses unconventional methods to keep the romantic flames glowing with Alex, often seeking the help of her close friends. The sitcom is set in Chicago.

Cast

• Whitney Cummings as Whitney Cummings, a photographer, and Alex's live-in girlfriend.
• Chris D'Elia as Alex Miller, developer of the "Mendeavors" website that helps men gain life skills and accomplish various tasks.
• Rhea Seehorn as Roxanne Harris, an over-the-top divorcee and Whitney's friend who later becomes her boss.
• Zoe Lister-Jones as Lily Dixon, a close friend of Whitney's and ex-fiancée of Neal.
• Dan O'Brien as Mark Murphy, Alex's best friend and a former Chicago police officer who now owns Low Bar.
• Maulik Pancholy (Season 1) as Neal, Lily's ex-fiancée and a friend of Alex. After Alex and Whitney see him on a date with a man, he comes out as bisexual. Pancholy did not return to the series after the first season.
• Tone Bell (Season 2) as Reginald "R.J." José, Alex's long-time friend, and a bartender at Low Bar, the gang's new hangout.

Episodes

See List of Whitney episodes for more information

Production

Whitney was one of two network television shows created by Whitney Cummings to premiere during the 2011-12 US TV season. The other, which she shares creator credit with Michael Patrick King and does not star in, is the CBS series 2 Broke Girls which is produced by Warner Bros. Television.

For Whitney, Cummings serves as the executive producer, creator and writer with Scott Stuber, Quan Phung and Betsy Thomas for Universal Television. Beverly D'Angelo originally played Patti, Whitney's mother, in the pilot episode before being replaced by Jane Kaczmarek, with parts of the pilot being reshot as a consequence. The tabloid, New York Post reported that Cummings received $60,000 per episode for the first three episodes, and was to receive a salary increase after the show ordered for a full season because of good ratings.

After the poor critical reception of the show upon its debut that was largely directed at Cummings herself, the producers of Whitney changed the direction of the series to a more ensemble-like show in the style of Friends to reduce the pressure on Cummings, who was also experiencing personal troubles. At the time, her mother had suffered a stroke, and her sister was entering rehab. Wil Calhoun replaced Betsy Thomas as showrunner for the second season. Additionally, Maulik Pancholy will not return to the show for the new season as the show focuses more on the relationship between the two leads and less on the ensemble cast as seen in the later part of the previous season. It was also announced that NBC Stand Up For Diversity winner Tone Bell will join the cast as a character named "RJ".

On Friday, November 9th 2012, NBC ordered five additional scripts for the television series, increasing its season order to eighteen.

International broadcasts

The series has been picked up in Canada by CTV, where it premiered on Monday, September 19, 2011, after the season premiere of Two and a Half Men. As of September 29, it will air on the same night as the NBC telecasts, but will be scheduled in different timeslots by region. In the UK and Ireland, Whitney has been picked up by Comedy Central, and aired on 3rd July 2012.

Whitney ended up becoming the #1 new comedy of the season during 2011-12 in Canada on CTV and had been picked up for a second season. The show will air on Saturday nights at 10:30 P.M. EST. starting on Saturday, October 20, 2012.

The series premiered in Australia on the Seven Network on Thursday, October 11, 2012.

The series currently airs in M-Net in South Africa.

Reception

Critical reception

Whitney premiere received mixed reviews from critics, with Cummings' herself receiving criticism in online articles and reviews for the series. It holds a Metacritic score of 49/100. The New Yorker magazine's Emily Nussbaum suggested that Cummings was 2011's "sexy-girl hate magnet", experiencing a disproportionate amount of attention for being successful as well as attractive. An example of this saw Andrew Goldman of The New York Times asking Cummings in an interview if she had slept her way to success. Much criticism was also aimed at what was perceived as an overly aggressive ad campaign for the show by the network. The critics also found issue with the content of the ads, which were described as "regressive" and "old-fashioned". Upon its debut, the pilot episode received mixed reviews, holding a score of 49 out of 100 on the review aggregator Metacritic. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times found that the episode was the funnier of the two shows by Cummings debuting that season because the humor was more unique. Robert Lloyd of The Los Angeles Times found that despite some missteps, the series was promising, writing that "[e]ventually the mood relaxes, even as the slapstick amps up, and what may prove to be a charming comedy begins to emerge." The bulk of the reviews however found the series to be a retread of past sitcoms, with dated jokes. One such review came from The Huffington Post website, which found the series to be uninspired, and many of the characters to be tenuous at best. The premiere was given a D"? by A.V. Club reviewers Erik Adams and Steve Heisler, who highlighted the weakness of Cummings' acting.

As the series progressed, some reviewers remarked about improvements in the show. Willa Paskin of online magazine Salon found that the series improved structurally from the eighth episode onwards, while the chemistry of the two leads was brought to the forefront. However, she still found that the jokes were not good enough. Jaime Weinman from Canadian news magazine, Maclean's, agreed with Paskin, additionally noting that the series depicted a more realistic relationship compared with other freshmen sitcoms such as New Girl. Stephan Lee writing for Entertainment Weekly magazine compared Whitney favorably to Cummings' other series, 2 Broke Girls, citing what he perceived to be an increasingly stronger and more multi-dimensional supporting cast in the former. Jesse Fox of Splitsider, a sister site of current events website The Awl also found that the series began to find its footing as it progressed from its pilot and misleading initial ad campaign.

Ratings

The series first debuted on Canada's CTV on September 19, 2011, three days before its U.S. premiere on NBC. The show won its timeslot with two million viewers, buoyed by its lead-in, the much-anticipated ninth-season premiere of Two and a Half Men.

The series made a modest debut in the US, scoring with 6.8 million viewers and a 4.0/6 rating. However, it premiered more importantly to a strong 3.2 18"49 demo rating (on which the cost of advertisement is often dependent). By December it had dropped to 4 million viewers and a 1.9 rating, being described by Entertainment Weekly as in "a ratings murk".

The show moved to Wednesdays at 8 pm midway through its first season, getting 4.5 million viewers and a 1.7 18"49 demo rating on its first airing.

Season	Timeslot (ET)	# Ep.	Premiered		Ended		TV Season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
			Date	Premiere Viewers (in millions)	Date	Finale Viewers (in millions)
1	Thursday 9:30 pm (2011) Wednesday 8:00 pm (2012)	22	September 22, 2011	6.84	March 28, 2012	4.09	2011"2012	#109	5.11
2	Wednesday 8:00 pm	16	November 14, 2012	4.22	March 27, 2013	TBA	2012"2013	TBA	TBA

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipients and nominees	Outcome
2012	People's Choice Awards	Favorite New TV Comedy	Whitney
	Women's Image Network Awards	Comedy Series
		Actress Comedy Series	Whitney Cummings
		Film/Show Produced by a Woman