Big CBS Sitcom Hits Netflix’s Top 10 After Surprise Cancellation

Four years after its surprise cancellation at CBS, Mom is finding a second life on Netflix.

The sitcom comedy-drama, which stars Anna Faris and Allison Janney, sits at No. 10 on Netflix’s Top 10 list of TV shows in the U.S. as of Tuesday, following its original eight-season run on CBS from 2013 to 2021.

Mom, which was created by Chuck Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky and Gemma Baker, follows Janney and Faris’ dysfunctional mother/daughter duo, Bonnie and Christy Plunkett, as they attempt to pull their lives together and repair their relationship after getting sober.

Despite Janney taking home two straight Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014 and 2015 and earning Emmy nominations in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2021, the show was unexpectedly canceled in 2021 after Faris announced the previous year that she would be exiting the show.

“There are so many reasons behind it — most of them probably money,” Janney said of the cancellation on The Late Late Show with James Corden in March 2021, adding that she was “sad” the show couldn’t get one more season to wrap things up.

“I wish we’d had at least another year for the writers to have that much time to ramp up to the ending,” Janney said. “We sort of found out sooner than we thought we would hear. We thought, ‘Surely they’re going to want more Mom,’ and they decided not.”

The following month, Janney said on CBS Sunday Morning that “it was a shock” to learn Mom wouldn’t have a ninth season. “I have my own theories, but I’ve been told not to express them,” she said. “But listen, eight years is a great long run for a show.”

Janney felt the show’s honest look at addiction and finding community via Alcoholics Anonymous made it a special project on which to work. “You know, it’s one thing to be part of a show that entertains, which in and of itself is a wonderful thing,” the star explained. “But to also have an impact on people who are in recovery or people who have loved ones or family members who are going through it, to make recovery a more approachable option.”