''Outmatched'' (stylized as outmatched) is an American multi-camera television

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

created by Lon Zimmet for the

Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an Television in the United States, American Commercial broadcasting, commercial terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by Fox C ...

. It premiered as a Thursday night entry in the 2019–20 television season starting on January 23, 2020, and is the only live-action situation comedy series that Fox ordered for the aforementioned season. In May 2020, Fox canceled the series after one season.

Premise

The series follows a blue-collar couple in Atlantic City trying to get by and raise four kids—three of whom are certified geniuses.

Cast

Main

Jason Biggs Jason Matthew Biggs (born May 12, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Jim Levenstein in the '' American Pie'' comedy film series and Larry Bloom in the Netflix original series ''Orange Is the New Black''. He als ...

as Mike Bennett, Kay's husband and a blue-collar home contractor. *

Maggie Lawson Margaret Cassidy Lawson (born August 12, 1980) is an American actress who is best known for her role as Detective Juliet "Jules" O'Hara in the TV show '' Psych''. From 2018 to 2019, she held the recurring role of Nathalie Flynn on Fox's ''Leth ...

as Kay Bennett, Mike's wife and a pit boss at a local casino. *

Tisha Campbell Tisha Michelle Campbell (born October 13, 1968) is an American actress and singer. She made her screen debut appearing in the 1986 rock musical comedy film '' Little Shop of Horrors'', and later starred on the short-lived NBC musical comedy dra ...

as Rita, a blackjack dealer and Kay's best friend. * Ashley Boettcher as Nicole Bennett, Mike and Kay's older gifted 15 year old daughter. Nicole has a high language proficiency, speaking at least 5 fluently, as well as a having a strong computer science knowledge. Of the three geniuses, Nicole is the most socially aware. * Connor Kalopsis as Brian Bennett, Mike and Kay's eldest gifted 16 year old son. Brian is the most socially awkward of the genius trio and has a high proficiency in the sciences. * Jack Stanton as Marc Bennett, Mike and Kay's younger gifted 10 year old son who has only just been certified as a genius. Marc has a strong interest and gift in art and music. * Oakley Bull as Leila Bennett, Mike and Kay's youngest 8 year old daughter who is not gifted and is therefore considered the "normal" one. *

Finesse Mitchell Alfred Langston "Finesse" Mitchell (born June 12, 1972) is an American actor, author and stand-up comedian. From 2003 to 2006, he was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live''.Jinelle Shengulette"Comedian Finesse Mitchell to perform at the Comedy ...

as Irwin, Mike's best friend and Rita's husband.

Guest starring

Tony Danza Tony Danza (born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza; April 21, 1951) is an American actor. He is known for co-starring in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983) and '' Who's the Boss?'' (1984–1992), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award a ...

as Jay Bennett, Mike's father. *

Caroline Aaron Caroline Sidney Aaron (née Abady; born ) is an American actress. She is known for her performances in films like Mike Nichols' ''Heartburn'' (1986) and ''Primary Colors'' (1998), as well as Woody Allen's '' Crimes and Misdemeanors'' (1989), ' ...

as Sylvia Bennett, Mike's mother and Jay's wife. *

Alyson Hannigan Alyson Lee Hannigan (born March 24, 1974) is an American actress. After starting her career at age four with appearances in commercials, she moved to Hollywood at age 11 and soon got an agent. Hannigan began her film career with supporting ro ...

as Beth, Atticus's mother with several animal-like senses. *

Eddie Kaye Thomas Eddie Kaye Thomas (born October 31, 1980) is an American actor who rose to prominence as Paul Finch in the ''American Pie'' film series. His other notable appearances include Andy Rosenberg in the ''Harold & Kumar'' series, Jeff Woodcock in ...

as Sigmund, Atticus's father who loves rollerblading.

Production

Development

On January 23, 2019, it was announced that Fox had given the production, then titled ''Geniuses'', received a pilot order commitment. The pilot was written by Lon Zimmet who was also set to executive produce. Production companies involved with the pilot include

Fox Entertainment Fox Entertainment is an American production company owned by Fox Corporation. The company was formed in 2019 after The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The programming is created for the Fox Broadcasting Company, MyNetwork ...

and

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's owned

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Co ...

. The network green-lighted the series to order on May 9, 2019 and titled changed as ''Outmatched''. A few days later, it was announced that the series would premiere as a

mid-season replacement In American network television scheduling, a mid-season replacement is a television show that premieres in the second half of the traditional television season, usually between December and May. Mid-season replacements usually take place after a ...

in the winter of 2019–2020. On May 19, 2020, Fox canceled the series after one season.

Casting

In February 2019, it was announced that

and

had been cast in the pilot's leading roles.

joined the cast in March. In December,

was announced to be in the main cast, first appearing in the second episode. On January 10, 2020, it was reported

would guest star in the series as the father of Biggs' character. On February 6, it was announced that Biggs would reunite with '' American Pie'' co-stars

and

in an episode.

Release

Marketing

On May 13, 2019, Fox released the first official trailer for the series.

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series has an approval rating of 22% based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 3/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a weighted average score of 33 out of 100 based on 4 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Ratings

According to

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...

, the series ranked 97th with an average of 3.25 million viewers for the broadcast season.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Outmatched 2020 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2020s American sitcoms English-language television shows Fox Broadcasting Company original programming Television series about families Television series about children Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series by Fox Entertainment Television shows set in New Jersey