Either unable to resist their morbid fascination, driven by a cruel pleasure in upsetting GLAAD, or genuinely interested in seeing their own struggles as an increasingly marginalized male realized as a sitcom about two dudes forced to cross-dress to get a job, audiences actually tuned into ABC’s Work It last night, then proceeded to put it willingly in their eye- and ear-holes. Some 6.1 million people did this, in fact, which gave the show a 2.0 rating share among adults—and while this is still a higher rating than, say, Community, and much higher than one might expect given even the most cynical estimates of the taste and intelligence of the average American, those numbers likely won’t cut it for long at ABC.
Since Work It more or less matched the numbers of the recently canceled show it replaced, Man Up!, and ranked as the lowest-rated first-run show in its time slot, it will probably be lucky to survive long enough to play out its entire gender studies thesis and be replaced itself by the returning Cougar Town, even if the men suffering through this dreadful “mancession” need Work It now more than ever. Soon enough men will be forced to find substitutes for its cathartic, satirical insights about the crumbling of the patriarchy, such as reading The Ultimate Dumb Blonde Joke Book and punching each other in the balls.