Emily's Reasons Why Not (TV series)

Emily's Reasons Why Not
Khary Payton as Josh, Heather Graham as Emily, and Nadia Dajani as Reilly
Created by	Carrie Gerlach
Developed by	Emily Kapnek
Starring	Heather Graham Nadia Dajani James Patrick Stuart Khary Payton Smith Cho
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	7 (6 unaired in U.S.)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Vivian Cannon Emily Kapnek Gavin Polone Bill Diamond Robin Schiff Ali Adler
Producer(s)	Carrie Gerlach Heather Graham Coral Hawthorne Michael Patrick Jann
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Pariah Television Sony Pictures Television
Distributor	Sony Pictures Television
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	January 9, 2006 (2006-01-09)

Emily's Reasons Why Not is a television series starring Heather Graham. The show, which was based on the novel of the same name, was canceled by its broadcaster, ABC, after airing one episode on January 9, 2006.

The series centered on Emily (Graham), an editor of self-help books who is unable to find success in romance. In the premiere episode she ends a bad relationship and adopts a new rule for her romances: if she can list five reasons to break up with a guy then she does so. Emily gets help from her friends, among them Josh, whose character is strongly based on gay stereotypes. The show was widely considered a less risqué copycat of Sex and the City.

In the first episode, she is convinced that the man she was dating was gay when he was actually a Mormon practicing chastity before marriage. His open virginity is presented through gay stereotypes, and his preferred sport, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is described as "the gayest sport there is" by Emily's former boyfriend.

It was reported that ABC committed to the show before seeing a script. Despite heavy promotion by both Sony Pictures Television and ABC, and a viewing average of 6.2 million viewers, the show was pulled after the first episode due to negative reception; production was stopped after filming six episodes. ABC was said to have spent millions on promotion, including airtime, billboards and radio ads, and considered Emily to be the 'linchpin' of the network's post-football Monday-night schedule. The promotion was so heavy and the cancellation so abrupt that some magazines found themselves carrying cover stories about a canceled show. After viewing it, ABC's entertainment president suggested that they considered the show lackluster and unlikely to improve.The New York Times attributed the cancellation in part to the extremely unappealing nature of the main character and the portrayal by Graham.