The Cleveland Show
FOX | Release Date: September 27, 2009
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
10
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyClark Collis
Season 1 Review: I never found the character that funny on Family Guy. But tonight's episode of the spin-off is quite a corker, as Cleveland runs over the family dog, with hilarious consequences. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesPaige Wiser
Season 1 Review: The new show is more conventional and warm-hearted--but only slightly. If I had to sum up the humor in one word, it would be "random." Read full review
70
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: Actually the dimly befuddled Cleveland works pretty well as a foil to the collection of redneck psycho neighbors, oversexed stepchildren and Russian bears (don't ask) who make up the cast. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: If The Cleveland Show isn't quite as sharp-tongued or focused yet as "Family Guy," it's got the eccentricity to fit into broadcast television's most off-center evening. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Like "Family Guy," The Cleveland Show jumps from the main plot to tangential asides often built around pop culture. But the show's tone is different because Cleveland is such a well-meaning, likable character. Read full review
67
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: I laughed. Not often, or perhaps not often enough, but there was also enough McFarlane-esque gross-out sophomoric tomfoolery to keep even me reasonably entertained for a half-hour. Plus, good ol' likable Cleveland works well as a leading man. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: Cleveland has a few delightfully outrageous moments, along with several that are gratuitously gross ("hot fur," anyone?), but its most disconcerting element is its significant resemblance to "Family Guy." Read full review
60
The New York TimesGinia Bellafante
Season 1 Review: Like everything else in the MacFarlane arsenal, The Cleveland Show relies heavily on pop-cultural references (and many of them are pretty funny), but the rhythm and pacing can feel like a slow-dripping faucet. Read full review
60
Boston GlobeJoanna Weiss
Season 1 Review: For a certain segment of the audience--men, boys, evil babies, talking bears--it’s likely to go over quite well. Read full review
50
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: Cleveland isn’t an inherently interesting, or, worse, funny, character. His presence allows the writers (many of them white like Henry and Appel) to tell meta jokes about white people in Hollywood producing entertainment for a black audience, and occasionally some of the racial humor lands. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: My guess is Fox figures fans of MacFarlane's shows know what they're getting into and may not care if racial parodies are served up by white guys or black ones. Those of us who maybe aren't so comfortable were never welcome in the first place. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: If you're a fan of "Family Guy," this is an easy sell....The guess here is that if you don't know anything about "Family Guy," you'll be watching another network anyway. Read full review
50
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: For those who buy into the MacFarlane formula this is all riotous fun. For the rest of us, it's a bit like Dane Cook's stand-up act--a reminder that what tickles current teens and twentysomethings is often markedly different from the satirical material that amused their parents. Read full review
50
New York PostMichael Starr
Season 1 Review: I found myself smiling once or twice, but mostly thinking that all this is way-too-similar to "Family Guy" to carve out its own niche. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara
Season 1 Review: The Cleveland Show is neither sweet nor particularly funny, neither a family comedy nor a true satire. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: The Cleveland Show is full of pubic-hair jokes, and if you don't think that's a laugh riot, you still might want to tune in--once--to see what the cool kids are digging these days. Read full review
25
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: The characters here creak, including the talking bear who mirrors the alien in American Dad and the dog in Family Guy, and the watered-down setup now feels like a copy of a copy of a copy. What's worse, in three episodes, there's hardly a laugh to be found. Bad taste, we'll accept. Boring we won't. Read full review
10
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: One of the strangest things about these MacFarlane shows are the mean-spirited "cultural references," all of them shoehorned in as asides and rarely having anything to do with the plot or characters. Read full review
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