The Pop Culture Pundit

^{Rotten Tomatoes TV via YouTube}

TV Obituaries honors our fallen television shows that were unjustly cancelled. These obituaries celebrate, mourn and analyze why they may have been axed by their networks, and why they should have run another season. 

DMV has run out of gas. After only 1 season and 20 episodes, CBS pulled the plug on the freshman sitcom. Starring an ensemble of beleaguered but determined employees working at East Hollywood’s Department of Motor Vehicles, the cast included Harriet Dyer, Tony Cavalero, Molly Kearney, Alex Tarrant, Gigi Zumbado and Tim Meadows. Though I could have easily envisioned this show going for 5 or 6 seasons (syndication, baby!), it was given up on halfway into its first season in March. With its finale airing tonight, I am here to analyze why this is, while also spotlighting the stellar work of its cast. 

Maybe from the beginning, the writing was on the wall for DMV in terms of ratings. The series premiere saw 3.93 million views live and 5.08 cross-platform (factoring in streaming across the week). From a sitcom standpoint, this isn’t terrible, and is in fact better than the average of companion sitcom The Neighborhood, which served as the lead-in on Monday nights (it should be noted this is the final season of The Neighborhood). 

But compared to CBS’ other sitcoms, it wasn’t great. CBS’ Ghosts has averaged 4.14 million live this season and often averages 8 million total. Georgie & Mandy’s first marriage fairs even better live, with nearly 5-6 million viewers tuning in every week. Perhaps this is because they have built a following being the second spinoff in the Big Bang Theory universe. 

In either case, DMV didn’t have a great premiere, and ratings only fell from there. There were only 3.31 million live the next week, and viewership has held steady at 2.9 million the rest of the season. Taking into account the fact that viewership would have decreased next season as is the norm for a network sitcom, the ratingers were probably the biggest factor. 

However, it is confusing that CBS would cancel a sitcom with potential when its lineup is lacking in laughs for the 2026-27 season. For the first time, CBS will only be airing three half-hour comedies next year when it usually has at least 4 minimum to fill a 2-hour viewing block. CBS has returning sitcoms Georgie & Mandy and Ghosts, as well as the new sitcom Eternally Yours from the same creators of Ghosts, except this time it’s vampires. 

With this in mind, one would think Ghosts would serve as the lead-in for Eternally Yours given their similar themes and the same creators, but instead Ghosts is being held for mid-season while Georgie & Mandy will serve as the lead-in for Eternally Yours. In my opinion, it would have made sense to have Georgie & Mandy serve as the lead-in for as second season of DMV to boost ratings while Ghosts and Yours would be paired together–but CBS didn’t consult me! 

In any case, DMV deserved another season. While its 65% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes wasn’t the best, there was room for improvement–after all, some of the best workplace sitcoms such as Parks & Recreation only got better as time went on.

Maybe DMV would have fit better on another network. It would have been a great companion to Fox’s Animal Control, another workplace sitcom with a bureaucratic setting and a will-they- won’t-they romance. Or maybe it would have fit in with NBC’s The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins or St. Denis Medical–even though DMV isn’t a mockumentary format like the latter two, it feels like it could have adjusted appropriately.

But perhaps the best thing about DMV was its ensemble. Harriet Dyer was on another short-lived workplace sitcom, American Auto; similarly, Alex Tarrant was on NCIS: Hawai’i, the rare spinoff in the NCIS-verse that was cancelled after only three seasons. Tony Cavelero came from the excellent show The Righteous Gemstones, but I actually would not have recognized him had my mom not pointed him out–that’s called range, people! (and also getting a buzzcut). We had SNL and Office alums in the mix; Molly Kearney and Tim Meadows both starred on the sketch comedy show, while Randall Park (who played Jim in an epic Office prank) guest starred as North Hollywood DMV boss Beau Young, and Chelsea Frei, who’s on The Office spinoff The Paper, made a similarly memorable guest appearance as a reality TV star. 

With this stellar cast, the characters’ personalities on DMV stood out in their own unique ways. Harriet Dyer played Colette, who had a massive crush on Noa (Tarrant); it’s hard not to see why when Noa was the sweetheart of the workplace who was both gracious and naïve. Kearny was DMV boss Barb, who was often the quirkiest one there; in one episode, they bought everyone ugly holiday sweaters at the DMV over a coffee maker because apparently sweaters are more essential than caffeine in the office. And Gigi Zumbado’s Ceci was always antagonizing Colette in the funniest ways while managing to always look like the most stylish DMV employee to exist. 

For a season, DMV was a great comfort sitcom that I could just sit down to watch knowing I would laugh. If it had lasted more seasons, it would have surely made a great companion to other workplace sitcoms including Parks and Rec, The Office and Superstore. Surely no one wants to watch a show about the frustrations of bureaucracy now, nor think about expensive gas prices. But DMV never focused on those aspects, instead choosing to focus on the interactions between employees and how, despite typical annoyances with your co-workers, they truly make your day and life better.

Rest in peace, DMV. You deserved a longer sitcom life, but I will always cherish the time we spent together.