Back to You
FOX | Release Date: September 19, 2007
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
11
Negative:
4

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
Season 1 Review: I'd rather just watch Grammer and Heaton trade barbs in the newsroom. [21 Sep 2007, p.71]
80
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: There's no such thing as a sure thing when it comes to new TV series, but Back to You is as close as it gets. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMartin Miller
Season 1 Review: Fox's Back to You is back to TV comedy basics: multiple cameras, live audiences but, mostly, laughs. Read full review
80
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: Grammer and Heaton slip easily into characters who won't be easily mistaken for Frasier Crane or Debra Barone, the writing's professional, the supporting cast dependable (and in the case of Fred Willard, another "Raymond" veteran, dependably hilarious). Read full review
80
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: This is one of those comedies in which the actors’ and writers’ skills are so sharp that the whole enterprise feels effortless. Read full review
80
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: You just can't get through two minutes of Back to You without a belly laugh. Read full review
80
SlateTroy Patterson
Season 1 Review: Back to You doesn't have a mandate to be inventive--to try new comedic beats or to attempt daring flights of absurdity. It just needs to be uninventive in a snappy way, a feat readily accomplished. Read full review
75
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: Still, even when Back is faltering, you flash back to the skill of its stars and to moments when the show succeeds in making you laugh out loud. Read full review
75
Detroit Free PressMike Duffy
Season 1 Review: The snap, crackle and pop of witty dialogue well delivered. That is the consistently amusing, escapist pleasure of Back to You. Read full review
75
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: What really makes the opening episode work, though, is the chemistry between Grammer--as Chuck Darling, an egotistical newsman who has returned to Pittsburgh after his career stalled--and Heaton as his uptight longtime co-anchor, Kelly Carr, who isn't thrilled by his return. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: What Back to You lacks in bite, it compensates for with chemistry and pure talent. The center of it all is the relationship between Chuck and Kelly, and Mr. Grammer and Ms. Heaton work together like they have been doing it all their lives. Read full review
70
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: Together Mr. Grammer and Ms. Heaton lift Back to You, a comedy that begins tonight on Fox, into a surprisingly amusing half-hour. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: Grammer and Heaton spar like old hands, but the punches (and punchlines) are so consistently telegraphed, the series seldom rises above the mundane. Read full review
60
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: Absolutely nothing about it is original or seeks to transform the half-hour genre. Still, the fact that it is executed by sure-footed comedy veterans more than makes up for the sin of familiarity. Read full review
60
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: The pilot's plot leads them in a direction where "this just in" becomes an obvious sexual metaphor--some of it is funny, but there's just too much. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: So many parts of the pilot, though, seem dumbed down or sacrificing character for punch lines, you wonder why things weren't retooled in time for launch. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: Three sitcom veterans can elevate comfortable mediocrity only so high. There's probably not one setup, premise or joke that you haven't seen before (or will see coming) in the entirety of your sitcom-watching life. Read full review
50
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: Yes, they're wicked wacky, this group, but they also seem to have been torn from the pages of the Sitcom Writer's Handbook, their status as foils and fools having been measured out in carefully calculated amounts, the final goal appearing to be not so much nonstop hilarity as the reassuring guarantee of No Surprises. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicRandy Cordova
Season 1 Review: Whenever the action drifts away from Heaton or Grammer, the show starts to feel slack. Read full review
40
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: You have to admire Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton for holding up their end of the bargain, even if the material in their show, Back to You, is such a drop from "Frasier" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" Read full review
40
NewsdayDiane Werts
Season 1 Review: There's just too much shtick and not enough personality, especially when the stars' previous hits found their funny in relatable human behavior. Read full review
40
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: This comedy is painfully broad, not to mention unimaginative and derivative of every newsroom sitcom from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" to "LateLine" to "NewsRadio" to "Less Than Perfect." Read full review
40
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: None of those jokes serve any purpose except to be jokes, and they suffer for the fact that real people don't talk, think or act this way. Read full review
30
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: Workplace comedies just bore me. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)John Leonard
Season 1 Review: After twenty years of stalwart service, Kelsey Grammer should be allowed back on television whenever he likes. But on a show like this, why would he want to be? Read full review
25
New York PostAdam Buckman
Season 1 Review: Back to You is no brains. Read full review
0
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman
Season 1 Review: Back to You stinks, shames the sitcom form, is written and directed with smelly gusto, and is not original, funny or redemptive by any universal standards known to science, creation or TV executives. Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 92 The Pitt: Season 2
2 90 The Celebrity Traitors UK: Season 1
3 87 Hacks: Season 5
4 87 Industry: Season 4
5 87 Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal:...
6 85 The Beatles Anthology
7 85 The Traitors [UK]: Season 4
8 85 Bait: Season 1
9 84 Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!
10 83 Lord of the Flies
11 83 Riot Women: Season 1
12 83 For All Mankind: Season 5
13 81 The Muppet Show (2026)
14 80 Outlander (2014): Season 8
15 80 The Other Bennet Sister: Season 1
16 80 The Mighty Nein: Season 1
17 80 The Comeback: Season 3
18 80 The American Revolution
19 80 One Piece (2023): Season 2
20 80 Dark Winds: Season 4
SEE ALL