FXX has confirmed Defamer’s report that the network has indeed canceled late night talk show Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, citing declining ratings after the show was moved from FX to FXX – a move that itself was questionable, I thought, when it happened earlier this year.

This comes months after the show scored its best ratings ever, while still on FX, delivering series highs in total viewers (577,000) and Women 18-49 (178,000).

I say the move to FXX was questionable, because as an FX offshoot channel in its first year, it doesn’t reach anywhere near the number of households FX does, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that there’d be a drop in viewership. It’s almost as if FX intentionally sent it FXX to die.

I couldn’t even tell you what channel FXX is on, here in NYC on my cable TV provider in Brooklyn.

After its move to FXX, viewership dropped significantly. As Deadline reported at the end of October, that week’s show drew only 12,000 total viewers during its timeslot, and registered a “0” on the Nielsen charts. 

12,000 total viewers! Public access program level numbers! Down from the few hundred thousand it typically drew when it was on FX. Clearly the folks who were watching it on FX didn’t all make the switch to FXX. Was there adequate marketing on FX alerting viewers of the move to FXX before and after it happened?

It probably didn’t help that, when it returned this fall to a nightly program on FXX, it was going directly up against The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, at 11pm, every night. When it was on FX, it aired on Thursday nights only at 11pm, so it was already in competition with The Daily Show, but that was just one night a week. When it moved to FXX, it was on 4 nights a week, competing each night with the other show. 

I haven’t been a regular watcher of the Chris Rock-produced series. I did watch several early episodes, and wasn’t immediately hooked on his style. And with so much else competing for my time, I never really returned to it.

The final show will air tomorrow, Thursday night.