Where Are the Hit TV Comedies?

Correction Appended

Anna Camp and Mindy Kaling in “The Mindy Project.”

Although this young fall television season has already delivered a successful new drama - in the form of NBC's “Revolution” - noticeably absent from the broadcast network schedule is any kind of breakout comedy. Where is this season's equivalent to Fox's “New Girl,” a show that made its debut last year to much hype and hoopla, which then translated into strong ratings? Or CBS's “Two Broke Girls,” another debut from last season that - while not as well-received - quickly found a sizable audience. A look at the Nielsen data from the last month reveals that so far, comedy hits are in shor t supply.

On Fox, “The Mindy Project” has struggled to connect with viewers. Its most recent episode on Oct. 9 drew 3.6 million viewers, down from the 4.7 million who tuned in to the series premiere. “Ben and Kate” has fared even worse, with 2.7 million viewers for its latest episode on Tuesday. Fox has ordered full seasons of both shows, but if they continue at these numbers, it is hard to believe that either one will see a second season.

For CBS, the only new comedy this season is “Partners” which had 6.1 million viewers for last Monday's episode. That is a decent number, but it may not be enough for CBS, which has made a yearly habit of canceling its lowest-rated comedy - which “Partners” definitely is - as it did with “How to Be a Gentlemen” last year.

ABC's new comedy “The Neighbors” has also performed decently with 6.5 million viewers, and more importantly, settled in that range over the last few weeks after a very quick drop f rom the 9.2 million viewers who watched the series premiere.

Justin Lubin/NBC Matthew Perry in “Go On.”

The lone bright spot, it seems, has been “Go On” on NBC. That Matthew Perry-led program finally stabilized on Oct. 9 - after a few weeks of steady declines - at 6.7 million total viewers, the highest audience total among all the new broadcast network comedies at this point in the season. It also has the highest rating in the 18-to-49 category among that same group of shows. But that is where the good news for NBC ends. The network announced on Thursday that “Animal Practice” has been pulled from the schedule after its last episode on Wednesday had 3.9 million viewers. “Guys W ith Kids” and “The New Normal” may soon follow, as the most recent episodes of those series only reached 4.4 million viewers and 4.9 million, respectively.

Correction: October 19, 2012

An earlier version of this post incorrectly described the scheduling of the Fox series “Ben and Kate.” It does not follow "The Voice," which is on NBC.

A version of this article appeared in print on 10/20/2012, on page C2 of the NewYork edition with the headline: New Comedies' Ratings Not Very Amusing.