Question: How often have you seen a show start off mediocre or as a disaster and then become a surprise hit? I can think of only one. Touched by an Angel was written off as dead after its first season and surprised everyone by being renewed. The second surprise came when, after being renewed, it suddenly came out of nowhere and became a top-10 hit. Do you really think Commander in Chief could pull that off?
Answer: Commander in Chief, no. Its best bet would be to be regarded as a possible utility player if the show could be successfully retooled. But a signature hit for the network? That's looking more and more like the longest of long shots. To answer your broader question, there are many examples of shows that struggled at first but went on to become giant hits: Cheers, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Practice. But none of those shows had quite the backstage turmoil that marked Chief's turbulent freshman year.
Also on Commander, Ryan S. remarks: "I personally would really like
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Question: I'm a U.K. fan of Commander in Chief. I've just seen the overnight ratings for the show's return to ABC. I know they weren't as high as they had been in its previous slot, but it was ABC's highest-rated show of the night. Were people seriously expecting the show to get 17 million viewers, like last October, in such a popular time slot? I think it would be a shame for ABC to cancel this show.
Answer: Adopting your glass-half-full approach, I agree it's not quite a lost cause yet for Commander in Chief. The turmoil of this first season is unprecedented, as I noted in my review column, but if ABC were to give the show a second chance, with a summer to regroup and retool, this may yet be an asset. Commander skews older than many ABC shows, as it did from the start, but it also attracts the sort of affluent demographic (shades of West Wing) that can be attractive to advertisers and could help ABC shore up one of its more difficult nights. Such as Thursdays right now, or possibly as
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With all the behind-the-scenes turmoil during Commander in Chief’s freshman (and potentially only) season (Thursdays at 10 pm/ET on ABC), you’d think Roseanne had been named president. For a show to fall from Golden Globe-winning hit to on-the-bubble underdog in a single year is pretty remarkable. But that’s what's happened.
When Commander launched last fall, it was a glossy, entertaining melodrama about the turbulent adjustment to White House life for Mackenzie Allen (Geena Davis) — a glamorously and defiantly Independent vice president — and her young, telegenic family.
The mix of domestic and political drama was just different enough
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On those rare occasions when the networks realize they've made a grievous mistake and fix it, it seems only right that we should acknowledge it and say thanks.
So thanks, CBS, for doing the right thing by The Amazing Race, and more important, for the show's family audience, by moving the show back to an earlier time period. As has been much discussed since the show was moved to 10 pm/ET this spring, with a season far superior than last fall's "family" edition, the new time period was simply on too late for many of its fans to watch it live. Starting next Wednesday, April 5, Race will now air Wednesdays at 8 pm/ET for (presumably) the rest of the season. (Crime-drama repeats will take over Race's slot, and struggling freshman sitcoms Out of Practice and Courting Alex will di
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Broadcasting & Cable reports that Stephen Bochco, who took over show-running duties from Commander in Chief creator Rod Lurie in the fall, has possibly parted ways with the currently-on-hiatus series, the result of what is being deemed a "bad fit." "Bochco just wasn't about to take notes from [ABC]," a source tells the mag. Exec producer Dee Johnson has had the helm since Bochco went into preproduction on his pilot, Hollis & Rae — and that was always the plan, ABC tells B&C, denying that Bochco is a goner. The magazine also says it remains unclear whether Commander will return on April 18, as previously announced.
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