Channel 4 can be a bit rubbish when it comes to sitcoms nowadays. It used to be that Friday night was Awesome American Sitcom Night, but no more. Fraiser, incredibly, lost its Friday night slot soon after Niles and Daphne finally got it together, and Scrubs and My Name Is Earl have both suffered from being shunted from Channel 4 pillar to e4 post. It means that it’s very easy to lose track of series, and you end up watching eveything out of sequence – as such I’m not really sure whether the quality trajectory of My Name Is Earl is generally downwards, but either way, it has just been canceled.

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Time was, of course, that that was that. Maybe uber-fans would get a petition together eventually, but the (lack of) technology meant it would have to be a seriously slow-burn affair. Now, though, reaction to news of this type is instant, and in the case of My Name Is Earl, those disappointed at the decision to cancel the show have found a voice on Twitter – twitter.com/EarlTwitition to be precise.

The twitition (Twitter petition, but I’m sure you got that) was set up yesterday – the very day the news broke – and has already got thousands of users adding #SaveEarl to their tweets, resulting in the issue becoming a ‘Trending Topic’ viewable by every single user of Twitter. They’ve also got Ethan Suplee who plays Randy on board, after he mentioned the show being cancelled on his own Twitter (@ethansuplee): “Just got the call that My Name Is Earl has been cancelled,” he wrote. “They sure did take their time with that decision.”

My Name Is Earl is an inventive, warm-hearted show with a really wonderful ensemble cast and I for one am sorry that, twititions not withstanding, no more episodes will made. But then, as I say, I’m probably a couple of series behind and watching them all in the wrong order in any case… maybe it has just run its course? Time will tell.