Editing Married... with Children (section)

===Ratings===
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2014}}
Despite the show's enduring popularity and fanbase, ''Married... with Children'' was never a major ratings success. Part of the reason was that Fox, a startup network, did not have the affiliate base of the [[Big Three television networks]], thus preventing the series from reaching the entire country. In an interview for a special commemorating the series' 20-year anniversary in 2007, Katey Sagal stated that part of the problem the series faced was that many areas of the country were able to get Fox only through low-quality [[UHF television broadcasting|UHF channels]] well into the early 1990s, while some areas of the country did not receive the new network at all, a problem not largely rectified until the launch of [[Foxnet]] in June 1991 and later the network's acquisition of [[National Football League]] rights which led to [[1994 United States broadcast TV realignment|several stations across the United States changing affiliations]]. For instance, Ed O'Neill's hometown of [[Youngstown, Ohio]] did not have its own Fox affiliate until [[CBS]] affiliate [[WKBN-TV]] signed on [[WYFX-LD|WFXI-CA/WYFX-LP]] in 1998, one year after the show went off the air (the area was served by [[WPGH-TV]] in [[Pittsburgh]] and [[Cleveland]]'s Fox affiliates—initially [[WOIO]], then [[WJW (TV)|WJW]]—as default affiliates on cable), so many of O'Neill's friends and family mistakenly thought he was famous for beer commercials during this time.

Another problem lay in the fact that many of the newly developed series on Fox were unsuccessful, which kept the network from building a popular lineup to draw in a larger audience. In its original airing debut, ''Married... with Children'' was part of a Sunday lineup that competed with the popular ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'' and Sunday-night movie on CBS. Fellow freshman series included ''[[Duet (TV series)|Duet]]'', cancelled in 1989, along with ''[[It's Garry Shandling's Show]]'' and ''[[The Tracey Ullman Show]]'', both of which were canceled in 1990. The success of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', which debuted on ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' in 1987, helped draw some viewers over to Fox, allowing ''Married... with Children'' to rank in the Nielsen Top 50 from Season 4 through Season 8, peaking at No. 37 in Season 6. Although these ratings were somewhat small in comparison with the other three networks, they were good enough for Fox to keep renewing the show. In its prime in the early 1990s, the show was averaging over 20 million viewers each week.

While the series did not end on a [[cliffhanger]], it was expected to be renewed for a 12th season (which would have been the final season) and thus did not have a proper [[series finale]] when Fox decided to cancel it in 1997. With Fox announcing the cancellation publicly before informing the cast and crew, most if not all of them found out about the series cancellation from fans and low-level employees instead of from network executives. Katey Sagal stated that she constantly felt that the series was neglected by Fox despite helping bring the fledgling network on the map (''Married... with Children'' having been on even before ''The Simpsons''); for his part, Ed O'Neill attributed possible neglect of the series by Fox to constant turnover of some of the top positions at the network.<ref name="E!">{{Cite episode|series=[[E! True Hollywood Story]]|title=Married... with Children|network=[[E!]]|date=August 26, 2001|season=5|number=36}}</ref> In a 2013 interview, O'Neill stated that he felt TV stations who owned syndication rights to the series put pressure on Fox and [[Sony Pictures Television]] to end the series since the show had [[100 episodes|nearly three times the episodes needed for syndication]] and the production of more episodes would have resulted in higher rights fees.

{| class="wikitable" width="100%"
|+Ratings overview
|-
! Season
! Episodes
! Timeslot ([[Eastern Time Zone|EDT]])
! Premiere
! Finale
! style="background:#ffdead;"| TV season
! style="background:#ffdead;"| Rank
! style="background:#ffdead;"| Rating
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 1 (1987)|1]]
| align="center"| 13
| align="center"| Sunday 8:00 PM
| align="center"| {{Start date|1987|4|5}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1987|6|28}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1986–87 United States network television schedule|1986–87]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#142'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''–'''
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 2 (1987–88)|2]]
| align="center"| 22
| align="center"| Sunday 8:00 PM {{small|(September 27 – October 18, 1987)}}<br /> Sunday 8:30 PM {{small|(October 25, 1987 – May 1, 1988)}}
| align="center"| {{Start date|1987|9|27}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1988|5|1}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1987–88 United States network television schedule|1987–88]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#115'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''4.7'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/1991/08/1987-88-ratings-history.html | title=The TV Ratings Guide: 1987-88 Ratings History }}</ref>
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 3 (1988–89)|3]]
| align="center"| 22
| align="center"| Sunday 8:30 PM 
| align="center"| {{Start date|1988|11|6}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1989|5|21}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1988–89 United States network television schedule|1988–89]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#63'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''10.5'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/1991/08/written-protesting-program-preemptions.html | title=The TV Ratings Guide: 1988-89 Ratings History }}</ref>
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 4 (1989–90)|4]]
| align="center"| 23
| rowspan="7" align="center"| Sunday 9:00 PM 
| align="center"| {{Start date|1989|9|3}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1990|5|13}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1989–90 United States network television schedule|1989–90]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#41'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''12.9'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/1991/08/1989-90-ratings-history.html | title=The TV Ratings Guide: 1989-90 Ratings History }}</ref>
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 5 (1990–91)|5]]
| align="center"| 25
| align="center"| {{Start date|1990|9|23}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1991|5|19}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1990–91 United States network television schedule|1990–91]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#41'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''12.4'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/1991/08/written-torn-between-cosbys-simpsons-by.html | title=The TV Ratings Guide: 1990-91 Ratings History }}</ref>
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 6 (1991–92)|6]]
| align="center"| 26
| align="center"| {{Start date|1991|9|8}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1992|5|17}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1991–92 United States network television schedule|1991–92]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#37'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''12.5'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/1991/08/1991-92-ratings-history.html | title=The TV Ratings Guide: 1991-92 Ratings History }}</ref>
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 7 (1992–93)|7]]
| align="center"| 26
| align="center"| {{Start date|1992|9|13}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1993|5|23}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1992–93 United States network television schedule|1992–93]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#43'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''11.4'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/2020/03/1992-93-ratings-history.html | title=The TV Ratings Guide: 1992-93 Ratings History }}</ref>
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 8 (1993–94)|8]]
| align="center"| 26
| align="center"| {{Start date|1993|9|5}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1994|5|22}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1993–94 United States network television schedule|1993–94]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#46'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''10.8'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/1991/08/1993-94-ratings-history.html | title=The TV Ratings Guide: 1993-94 Ratings History }}</ref>
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 9 (1994–95)|9]]
| align="center"| 26
| align="center"| {{Start date|1994|9|4}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1995|5|21}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1994–95 United States network television schedule|1994–95]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#66'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''9.5'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/1991/08/1994-95-ratings-history.html | title=The TV Ratings Guide: 1994-95 Ratings History }}</ref>
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 10 (1995–96)|10]]
| align="center"| 26
| align="center"| {{Start date|1995|9|17}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1996|5|19}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1995–96 United States network television schedule|1995–96]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#78'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''8.2'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/1991/08/1995-96-ratings-history.html | title=The TV Ratings Guide: 1995-96 Ratings History }}</ref>
|-
! [[List of Married... with Children episodes#Season 11 (1996–97)|11]]
| align="center"| 24
| align="center"| Saturday 9:00 PM {{small| (September 28 – October 12, 1996)}}<br />Sunday 7:30 PM {{small| (November 10 – December 29, 1996)}}<br />Monday 9:30 PM (January 6–27, 1997)<br />Monday 9:00 PM (February 24 – June 9, 1997)
| align="center"| {{Start date|1996|9|28}}
| align="center"| {{End date|1997|6|9}}
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| [[1996–97 United States network television schedule|1996–97]]
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''#97'''
| style="background:#fc9; text-align:center;"| '''6.7'''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/1991/08/1996-97-ratings-history.html | title=The TV Ratings Guide: 1996-97 Ratings History }}</ref>
|}