According to Jim: Kicked to the Curb Again

Now I know why ABC renewed the Jim Belushi sitcom According to Jim—so it could repeatedly torture fans of the show by repeatedly preempting it whenever it’s supposed to air. Since showrunners only managed to complete seven of the eighteen episodes ordered before the writers strike erupted, you’d think the network would try a little harder to get those few installments on the air. You’d be wrong, though.

First, the one-hour, two-episode seventh-season premiere of the series was hijacked by football overrun on January 1, effectively leaving everyone who set their recorders to capture the episodes between 9pm and 10pm EST out in the cold.

Then last night in New England at least, the third episode of the season, “Safety Last,” was buried underneath a torrent of reporting on the New Hampshire primary, as if the outcome wouldn’t be all over the news at 11pm and today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, too.

If a network can’t be bothered to air a show on television when it said it would, I can’t be bothered to seek alternative methods of watching it when executives feel like making the overlooked episodes available online. But, if you missed seeing Jim last night (and/or last week), ABC does offer recent installments for Internet streaming.

The good part is that you’ll finally have the opportunity to find out what happened. The bad part is that ABC is sometimes just as lazy posting episodes online as it is broadcasting them on TV. Last Tuesday, the network’s website indicated the one-hour season premiere would be available the next day, but it actually took three or four days.

Fortunately, however, last night’s “Safety Last” is already up and ready to be streamed (click the link and then click “According to Jim” on the left sidebar menu to choose an episode). People must have complained, or perhaps someone at ABC feels bad about treating Jim fans so shabbily.