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"The Game" was introduced in 2006 in a backdoor episode of "Girlfriends"    Both shows were created by Mara Brock Akil , a Black woman.  "Girlfriends" was the longest-running live action sitcom on network tv when it was cancelled.  After three seasons amidst much protest and effort CW has let  "The Game" go.  It's final episode was a one hour dramedy that is now the series finale.

  This show started off with not much hope.  Several of the cast had been on other sitcoms years before, but sometimes actors don't do well once we associate them with something else.  Who knew Tia , the "smart twin" of "Sister,Sister" fame would be balancing men and med school?  In the 2nd season this show really took off with it's dramatic story-lines building the addiction.  Is there someone who was not Team Merwin?

Now it's over.  I sat in at BET's 106 & Park this past monday as cast members Pooch Hall and and Hosea Chanchez warned everyone of the questionable fate, and what we could do.  "Save the Game" and "Change the Game" were movements of protest from cast and fans to keep the show for another season , and make it an 1 hour dramedy.  Hundreds of thousands fans and peers wrote on the CW website.  Blogs spoke out, and "The Game" became a number one twitter trend during it's final show.  Ratings of the show have surpassed ratings of several shows on the CW, and still we lost.

Even if you didn't get the jokes or buy the dramatics of the show you have to realize what this means.  This show was the last living black sitcom on basic television.  Back in the days,"The Cosby Show" was on CBS and "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" was on NBC.  "Martin" and "Living Single" made Fox.  Once that network got established several years of white sitcoms only existed before "The Bernie Mac Show" came into existence.   "Moesha", the first show to have a black female teen lead on UPN. "Family Matters" originally ran on ABC as did "Hangin' With Mr.Cooper".  On the WB there was "The Steve Harvey Show" and "The Wayans Brothers".  Those are just some of the shows from the 1980's to early 2000's that I grew up with.  Good shows with Black cast and at times Black writing for years on every basic network channel.  Now with "Everybody Hates Chris" bowing out gracefully, and "The Game" being cancelled there is nothing.

This is a sad week in Black television history.  Enjoy your 60+ episodes. 

The CW does know that their viewership will be severely lessened.  You can't mess with the black audience.  I love "One Tree Hill", but  I think we've all had enough.  The CW channel was made when the WB and UPN came together and had a baby.  Baby CW is off to a rocky start and with no Black programming aside from Tyra's dead horse, there seems to be little trace of the UPN black sitcom roots.  The WB itself used to collect tv shows others passed on such as "Sister, Sister" once part of TGIF.  UPN got "The Hughleys" from ABC.  Now that there is now WB recycle channel what's a good show done wrong to do?  I know what we can do....not watch the network until they "pay what they owe".