Data Archive: ‘George Lopez’
abc
George Lopez, also known as The George Lopez Show, was created by Bruce Helford (Wanda at Large/The Drew Carey Show), George Lopez (Valentine’s Day/The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl), and Robert Borden (The Drew Carey Show/Outsourced). Lopez played a character of the same name, serving as a fictionalized version of himself. The series amassed over 40 award show nominations and won 10 of them, with one of them being a PrimeTime award. The series was initially tested by ABC with only four episodes in its first season before greenlighting it for six times that number for season two (24 episodes). George Lopez was one of the very few all-Latino casts on air at the time.
Premise: The series follows George Lopez’s personal and professional life, often dealing with the antics of the Lopez family.
Genre: Sitcom
Cast: George Lopez as George Edward Lopez, Constance Marie (Selena/Switched at Birth) as Angelina "Angie" Lopez, Valente Rodriguez (McFarland, USA/The Mentalist) as Ernesto "Ernie" Cardenas, Luis Armand Garcia (ER/Freddie) as Maximilian "Max" Lopez, Masiela Lusha (The Doctor with Two Faces/Anger Management) as Carmen Lopez, Belita Moreno (Grosse Pointe Blank/Clear and Present Danger) as Benita "Benny" Lopez, Emiliano Díez (Elena of Avalor/Gang Related) as Dr. Victor "Vic" Garcia Lantigua Palmero and Aimee Garcia (Dexter/RoboCop) as Veronica Ann Palmero
Network: ABC
Medium: Broadcast
Original Release: March 27, 2002 - May 8, 2007
Seasons: 6
Episodes: 120
George Lopez slowly declined in viewership over time, with the series hitting its peak during season two and seasons two through four averaging very similar viewership numbers. Season one had 36.08 million total viewers, though it was the shortest season with four episodes and averaged 9.02 million per episode, the second-highest average of the seasons. Season two raised the bar and had 255.39 million total viewers (10.64 million average) across its 24 episodes. Season three had 214.49 million total viewers (7.66 million average), season four had 183.52 million (7.65 million average), and season five had 159.47 million (7.25 million average). Season six marked the final season of the series with 106.11 million viewers (5.9 million average).
The rankings of the series followed a similar but slightly altered pattern. Season two was the best performing in the series at rank 50, followed by season one at 70, season four at 79, and season five at 82. Season six (rank 95) and season three (rank 86) pull up the tail end of the series’ run. The vast majority of the series had ratings that ranged between 7.0 and 8.6, with only one episode from season three dropping that mark below at 6.6 and one episode from the same season reaching 8.7. Most of the episodes with ratings above an 8.0 reside in seasons two through five. Seasons two and five have 10 each, season three has 15, and season four has 16. The remaining three belong to season six.
Both the viewership and ratings indicate that the show had a steady audience for most of its run, with a dip in its final season that may have contributed to its cancellation. Without many reviews available, it is difficult to label what particular issue(s) caused the dropoff. Note that season six had the same airing date and time on Wednesdays at 8:00 pm EST/PST as season five and was similar to seasons one and two (Wednesdays at 8:30 pm EST/PST), so airtime was unlikely to be a contributing factor.
George Lopez was canceled after its sixth season, though there are limited accounts of the reasoning. Most of what is known about the cancellation comes from an article where Lopez shared some of the discussions that happened behind-the-scenes. According to Lopez, ABC claimed the series was losing money. Lopez added that the show was not directly produced by ABC, which may have been an element at play. Lopez also noted that the sixth season still outperformed other series the network renewed, calling out Notes from the Underbelly in particular, and was constantly competing with series like American Idol. Thus, the real reason(s) the series was canceled can only be speculated to be a mix of all of these aspects, alongside its slightly lower performance in season six compared to its predecessors.
The series saw decent success in its syndication run spanning stations across Fox, The CW, MyNetworkTV, Telelatino, Nick at Nite, and Cozi TV. It was the highest-rated show to air on Nick at Nite and had a spot on the network for nearly 13 years. Among the networks it was syndicated on, it was consistently moved to more desirable airtime spots from overnight slots. A potential reboot was in the air in the mid-2010s, but was never moved forward.
George Lopez remains one of the most popular Latino-led series on television and is still available to watch in full on Peacock, Hulu, and Disney+.
