After premiering on September 22, 1974, the show struggled to find an audience. Critics said the show was "uneven," and that Cher's presence was sorely missed. TV columnist Forrest Powers said the show "needs a lot of smoothing out to overcome the absence of Cher. Unless an 'instant' patching job is done, I'll give solo Sonny 13 weeks." Other critics were more kind, notably James Brown of
The Los Angeles Times, who wrote, "Sonny without Cher works quite well--most of the time." Brown concluded, "The Sonny Comedy Revue is mostly good fun, and a notch above the variety factory printouts we've become accustomed to. And as one colleague so aptly put it, 'ABC needs all the help it can get.' With Sonny Bono, they've possibly gotten more than they bargained for." Harry Harris of
The Philadelphia Inquirer also saw potential in Bono's solo outing, "Can Sonny make it as a TV star without Cher? ABC's first 'Sonny Comedy Revue' suggests that his chances aren't bad. The variety hour is fast-moving, crammed with camera tricks and often quite amusing...Plus marks go to some zany skits." Nevertheless, the show was in immediate trouble, as the premiere episode ranked 41st out of 61 programs for the week. Subsequent episodes fared even more poorly: the October 20, 1974 episode, for example, ranked 50th out of 53 shows. ABC programmers themselves realized just weeks into the new season that the program was hampered by its poor time slot, competing against established TV shows like
Kojak and
The Wonderful World of Disney. Disney on NBC had a jump start by airing at 7:30 PM (
Kojak aired at 8:30 on CBS), while Bono's show did not start until 8:00 PM. The show was also the victim of a weak ABC schedule that fall. "ABC is into the most disastrous new show scheduling in more than a decade," said Joyce Haber of
The Los Angeles Times. "ABC's ratings are so weak, overall, that the chances of any new show scoring high enough in the Nielsen numbers for a pick up next fall are minimal." By mid-October, Les Brown of the
New York Times reported that ABC was considering moving the show at mid-season to 7:30 PM, but a continued decline in ratings took the mid-season option off the table. On November 14,1974, ABC announced its "second season" schedule and the cancellation of The Sonny Comedy Revue. The last of 13 original episodes aired December 22, 1974 (a Christmas-themed episode with guest star Lucie Arnaz), and the final episode aired December 29, 1974 (a repeat episode with guest Clifton Davis). After its demise, the show was nominated for an
Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design for the 1974–1975 season. During the run of Cher's show, she and Sonny got a chance to go "head to head" in the ratings when he guest-starred on
The Six Million Dollar Man, starring
Lee Majors, the program that had replaced his in the 8 p.m. Sunday time slot.
The Six Million Dollar Man won in the ratings. ==Cast==