The series was about four friends who each suffer from eating disorders, who met at a "shame-based" support group called Belt Tighteners.

The series debuted on August 4, 2005, to poor critical reviews and was cancelled in October 2005, when FX picked Sunny over Starved for renewal.

[6] The National Eating Disorders Association called for a boycott of the show and claimed that Diageo (makers of Tanqueray) and Nautilus agreed to pull their advertising.

"[3] Starved premiered to an audience of 1.54 million viewers, scoring a Neilsen rating of 0.8 and a 2 share among adults 18–49,[8] the network's target demographic.

"[9] The Washington Post concurred in this assessment, describing the premise of the show as "Hey, what happens if you take the characters from Seinfeld and give them eating disorders?

"[10] While crediting Starved for "a few inventive laughs,"[10] the language and sexuality of the show are described as "exceptionally coarse"[10] and "outrageous for cable television, even later at night.

"[10] Worse than these issues, the Post felt that Schaeffer neglected to develop the characters in favor of coming up with contrived situations for them.

"[10] The New York Times credited the series for its bold premise and noted that the show provided some insight into eating disorders while offering "a few flashes of clever dialogue and satire.

"[11] The Los Angeles Times found the show "vexing" for being "at once assured and shallow, accomplished and unconvincing, well-acted and empty.

FX president John Landgraf told Variety, "The show had a lot of fans, so it was tough to choose [between it and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia].