'Commander In Chief' Deposed Until April
Friday, February 10, 2006
02:30 PM PT
ABC has invoked the TV-scheduling version of the 25th Amendment on its freshman series "Commander In Chief," benching it until mid-April.
The network had already announced that the show, which stars Golden Globe winner Geena Davis as the first female president, would take a six-week break starting March 7 to make room for the comedy "Sons & Daughters." Now ABC has pulled it for the rest of February as well. It will return April 18 to finish out the season. "We believe in 'Commander In Chief' and want to do what we think is best for its long-term prospects," says Jeff Bader, head of scheduling for ABC. "With this new schedule, the show will return with a healthy run of seven straight episodes in the spring."
For the remainder of February, repeats of "According to Jim" and "George Lopez" will fill the 9 p.m. hour.
After starting the season strong -- it averaged better than 15 million viewers through its first eight weeks on the air -- the show has cooled considerably. The three episodes that aired in January drew an average of 10.85 million viewers, thanks in large part to tougher competition from FOX's massive hit "American Idol."
The "Commander In Chief" audience also skews older than most of ABC's popular shows. While the series still ranks among the top 25 in total viewers, it's only 41st among the adults 18-49 demographic that's so important to advertisers.
The show has also undergone a behind-the-scenes regime change, with Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue") taking over as showrunner from creator Rod Lurie, partly to ensure the production would run on a tighter schedule. Bochco and Co. will have plenty of time to craft the remaining episodes of the season -- by the time "Commander In Chief" returns, it will have been nearly three months since its last original episode.
Friday, February 10, 2006
02:30 PM PT
ABC has invoked the TV-scheduling version of the 25th Amendment on its freshman series "Commander In Chief," benching it until mid-April.
The network had already announced that the show, which stars Golden Globe winner Geena Davis as the first female president, would take a six-week break starting March 7 to make room for the comedy "Sons & Daughters." Now ABC has pulled it for the rest of February as well. It will return April 18 to finish out the season. "We believe in 'Commander In Chief' and want to do what we think is best for its long-term prospects," says Jeff Bader, head of scheduling for ABC. "With this new schedule, the show will return with a healthy run of seven straight episodes in the spring."
For the remainder of February, repeats of "According to Jim" and "George Lopez" will fill the 9 p.m. hour.
After starting the season strong -- it averaged better than 15 million viewers through its first eight weeks on the air -- the show has cooled considerably. The three episodes that aired in January drew an average of 10.85 million viewers, thanks in large part to tougher competition from FOX's massive hit "American Idol."
The "Commander In Chief" audience also skews older than most of ABC's popular shows. While the series still ranks among the top 25 in total viewers, it's only 41st among the adults 18-49 demographic that's so important to advertisers.
The show has also undergone a behind-the-scenes regime change, with Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue") taking over as showrunner from creator Rod Lurie, partly to ensure the production would run on a tighter schedule. Bochco and Co. will have plenty of time to craft the remaining episodes of the season -- by the time "Commander In Chief" returns, it will have been nearly three months since its last original episode.
