Canadians will miss out on the next seasons of The Mindy Project

Mindy Kaling’s romantic comedy series “The Mindy Project”, which airs in Canada on CityTV, has been cancelled by Fox.

The breaking news in television-land Thursday morning was the cancellation of “The Mindy Project” and its rumoured relocation to Hulu, the US-based streaming service. Unfortunately for viewers north of the 49th parallel, Hulu is unavailable in Canada. The deal between the NBC Universal-produced series and Hulu is yet to be confirmed, but insiders are reporting the site will pick-up the comedy for two 12-episode seasons.

The 30-minute comedy which premiered in Fall 2013, centered on a small gynecology practice in New York City run by an eclectic group of doctors and nurses. Beyond the medical setting, the show more prominently explored the love-life of Mindy Lahiri, a 30-something-year-old doctor who yearned to meet the man of her dreams.

On one hand, the cancellation of Mindy Kaling’s show is surprising to many. A series typically needs at least 88 episodes to air before it can be put into syndication, and with 66 episodes usually produced by the end of a show’s third season, many networks opt to renew a dying series for a fourth season just to hit the 88-episode limit. When a series is put into syndication, like “Friends, “Seinfeld” and “Modern Family”, the network benefits greatly by extra advertising dollars. Even though there were 67 episodes to air, Fox still chose not to renew.

On the other hand, “Mindy” was falling behind in ratings compared to almost all other network comedies. Though the show had a sort-of cult success in the digital realm and on social media, fan engagement does not make up for a major viewer deficit.

The biggest comedies continue to be “The Big Bang Theory”, new hit “The Odd Company”, “Mom” and “Modern Family”, dominating the 18-49 demographic.

The Nielsen Company, Vancity Buzz

“The Mindy Project” was created by former “The Office” star Mindy Kaling and stars Mindy Kaling, Chris Messina, Ed Weeks, Zoe Jarman, Ike Barinholtz, Beth Grant, Xosha Roquemore and Adam Pally.

While the first few seasons saw Mindy find romance with a spectacle of men, one of whom she became engaged to, the second season ended with a shocking kiss with long-time friend Danny Castellano. The 2014-2015 season explored that relationship, and viewers were once again surprised when Mindy ultimately became pregnant with Danny’s baby.

But Canadian fans of the show will likely never (legally) get to see what happens next to Mindy and her colleagues at Shulman and Associates.

Other notable shows that have already been cancelled this season:

• “Revenge” (ABC)
• “Looking” (HBO)
• “Hart of Dixie” (CW)
• “Mulaney” (FOX)
• “Melissa and Joey” (ABC Family)
• “Derek” (Netflix)
• “Covert Affairs” (USA)