Why “Bewitched” Was Cancelled, and the Real Reason It Ended So Abruptly

TLDR: Bewitched did not end because ABC cancelled it for poor ratings.

The network had already renewed the show for two additional seasons when Elizabeth Montgomery delivered an ultimatum: she would only return if producer William Asher, her estranged husband, was fired.

When executive producer Harry Ackerman refused to abandon his longtime partner, Montgomery walked away, and the show ended with her.

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The final episode of Bewitched, “The Truth, Nothing But the Truth, So Help Me Sam,” aired on March 25, 1972, with no fanfare, no farewell, and no narrative closure.

The cast went on their scheduled summer hiatus expecting to come back for a ninth season. Instead, they received letters and telegrams informing them the show was over.

The story of why is more complicated, and more personal, than most people realize.

The Ratings Were Bad, But That Was Not the Reason

It is true that by its eighth season, Bewitched was no longer the ratings powerhouse it had once been.

In its debut year it finished second nationally, behind only Bonanza. By its final season it had plummeted to 72nd, with a household rating of 11.3.

ABC moved it twice trying to find a workable time slot, first to Wednesday nights where it competed directly with The Carol Burnett Show, then to Saturday nights where it ran against Norman Lear’s All in the Family. Neither move helped.

But poor ratings were not what killed the show. ABC had looked at the numbers and renewed Bewitched for two full additional seasons anyway. The cast had active multi-year contracts. Production was expected to resume in the fall. The renewal was real.

The Marriage That Ended the Show

During the production of the eighth season in 1971, Elizabeth Montgomery fell in love with Richard Michaels, a director who had been part of the Bewitched production team since the very beginning, eventually directing 54 episodes.

Their relationship led to the end of both of their marriages. Montgomery separated from William Asher, the show’s primary director and executive producer. Michaels separated from his wife.

Montgomery and Michaels moved in together when production wrapped in 1972 and remained together for two and a half years.

The complication was structural.

Bewitched was co-produced by Ashmont Productions, Montgomery and Asher’s joint production company. Their marriage ending made any continued professional collaboration effectively impossible.

Montgomery was not willing to spend her working days on a set run by her estranged husband.

According to Peter Ackerman, son of executive producer Harry Ackerman, Montgomery made her position explicit. She told Harry Ackerman that she would only return for a ninth season if William Asher was removed from his role as producer and director.

Ackerman refused.

“Liz, Bill Asher is my partner,” he reportedly told her. “I’m not going to do that to him.” Montgomery’s response was equally direct: “Well then, Bewitched is done.”

With the show’s star unwilling to perform, ABC had no choice but to let the renewal lapse.

Asher’s Counter-Narrative

William Asher himself largely stayed silent on the details of the breakdown in his public interviews, including a lengthy Television Academy interview in 2000 in which he spoke extensively about the show’s production but maintained professional discretion regarding the personal circumstances.

Biographers and documentary filmmakers who investigated the ending have noted that Asher had his own history of infidelity during the marriage, and some accounts frame Montgomery’s relationship with Michaels as a response to years of her husband’s own affairs rather than its cause.

Both narratives are supported by firsthand accounts from people close to the production. Most modern biographers conclude the marriage was mutually broken before the final season even began.

Montgomery Was Ready to Leave Anyway

Whatever the precise sequence of personal events, the professional truth was that Montgomery had been creatively restless for years.

She had trained as a serious actress and felt increasingly trapped by the wholesome, repetitive demands of Samantha Stephens.

Actor Ronny Cox later recalled that “Elizabeth didn’t want to walk around for the rest of her life being Samantha.” She had already begun quietly planning the dramatic pivot that would define her post-Bewitched career.

That pivot proved her instincts right.

Within two years of the show’s end, she earned Emmy nominations for A Case of Rape (1974) and The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), both of which were as far from suburban sitcom territory as it was possible to get.

The personal circumstances that ended Bewitched also freed her to do the most serious dramatic work of her career.

The Dick York Factor

It is worth noting that the show’s final decline was already well underway before the personal circumstances intervened.

The 1969 departure of original co-star Dick York, and his replacement by Dick Sargent, had sent the ratings from 11th to 24th in a single season. Scripts had grown repetitive. The show’s creative momentum had stalled long before the Michaels relationship entered the picture.

Montgomery’s decision simply determined the precise timing of an ending that was probably coming regardless.