Why ABC Decided to Cancel ‘Phenom’ : Television: Ranking 28th among network series and holding 95% of the lead-in audience aren’t enough to earn a second season. Creative differences may be why.

“Phenom,” a sitcom about a single mother with three children, one of them a tennis star, ranked 28th among this season’s 133 prime-time network series--and ninth among youngsters. A first-year show airing Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m., it retained 95% of the lead-in audience from longtime hit “Full House.”

So why did ABC cancel it last week?

“A complete mystery to me,” says Dick Blasucci, one of its creators and executive producers.

Blasucci acknowledges that the network was not always high on the show but, even so, given the ratings, the worst he expected was that it would be moved to a new time slot come fall.

“We were in a prime place, and I thought, ‘Well, maybe they’ll bury us and see if we succeed without the boost (of “Full House”),” he said. “What can I say? I thought we fulfilled everything in terms of what an 8:30 show should do.”

The cancellation was noteworthy not only because of “Phenom’s” ratings but also because it was produced by Gracie Films, headed by one of Hollywood’s most successful writer-producers, James L. Brooks (“The Simpsons,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Terms of Endearment”), with whom ABC had a multishow production deal.

Some industry insiders suggest that ABC, buoyed by its strong second-place finish behind CBS for the season, was reasserting itself, unhappy that Brooks wouldn’t move “Phenom” in the direction it felt the series should be going. Some note too that “Phenom” is being replaced in the fall by “Me and the Boys,” a comedy from ABC’s own production company.

Brooks himself is clearly seething, sending this rather cryptic message through a spokeswoman: “I have no comment while I’m developing the muscle to lie about my reaction to what ABC did.” One person close to Brooks said their feeling is that “ABC has become drunk with power.”

For the network’s part, ABC spokeswoman Sherrie Berger says, “ ‘Phenom’ was canceled despite a very talented cast. In the past, we have had the luxury of being patient and allowing a show a second year to see if it would pop in its time period. This season we had strong pilots and fewer time periods available and, as a result, we were in a position to judge more strictly.”

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Although it rarely happens, when a well-rated show is canned it’s usually because it is losing a significant amount of its lead-in audience or there is research showing that ratings problems are looming. But “Phenom” was not losing its audience. In fact, quite the opposite, according to a research executive at Columbia TriStar, the studio behind it.

“It consistently went up in the key demographics over the season,” the researcher said. “And while it didn’t always beat ‘Full House’ in the number of households watching, it beat that show in the number of desirable young adults watching.”

The executive points out, however, that “ABC creatively didn’t like the show, and that means they find ways to say it isn’t working.” Blasucci also says the network “would occasionally tell us its own research didn’t match ours.”

Even those involved say “Phenom,” which starred Judith Light as the mother and William Devane as her daughter’s tennis coach, was still finding its way creatively.

“It can be a long process to find the voice of a show,” says Light, the former star of “Who’s the Boss?” “This is a show that was particularly hard to define.

“For Jim Brooks, complexities and nuances can be as automatic as breathing, and he brought in some very original writers. But he was also working on a film (“I’ll Do Anything”), and, though he was with us as much as he could be, he was in and out.

“One can argue that any show in the top 20s should get a second season, but then one can also argue that maybe we should have distilled the show faster. Obviously, I’m sad that we couldn’t develop these characters further, but, in this case, I really think both sides are right.”