Return of Chief commands low ratings

[Forever Xena]

Return of Chief commands low ratings
April 14, 2006 at 05:01:00 PM

ABC's beleaguered presidential drama may not recover from earlier stumbles.
<em>Chief</em> didn't command ratings.

Chief didn't command ratings.

Commander in Chief wasn't able to muster the troops in its return to prime time Thursday.

The ABC drama, which stars Geena Davis as the nation's first female president, averaged 8.2 million viewers and a 2.4 rating/7 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary ratings data from Nielsen Media Research.

In its new 10 p.m. slot, Commander was defeated handily by CBS's Without a Trace (18.6 million, 5.7/16). It had a couple million more viewers than a repeat of NBC's ER (6 million, 2.6/7), but the repeat did better in the demo.

Thursday night belonged to CBS, which averaged prime-time delivery of 19.2 million viewers and a 6.1/18 in the demo. The night's top show was CSI, which averaged 23.9 million viewers and a 7.5/21 in the demo. At 8 p.m., Survivor was the winner with 15 million viewers and a 5.1/17 in adults 18-49.

No one else was even close, with ABC averaging 7.2 million viewers and a 2.5/7, with Commander and a two-hour American Inventor (6.8 million, 2.5/8).

NBC's two hours of sitcom reruns and ER brought in a mere 6 million viewers, but did slightly better than ABC in the demo with a 2.6/8. The 9 p.m. My Name is Earl was the sitcom highlight with 7 million viewers and a 3.1/9 in the demo, while The Office sank to 5.4 million viewers and a 2.6/7.

Fox was barely in the race with an average 3.8 million viewers and 1.8/5 with an original That '70s Show and The Loop plus The O.C. A Chris Rock-directed Everybody Hates Chris was UPN's highlight with 3 million viewers and a 1.2/4.

[katina2nd]

That doesn't bode very well for it's future by the sound of it, which is a pity, been running here for about six weeks or so and I'm really hooked on it, one of the few shows on free to air worth watching.

Have you any idea of the situation, will it continue for another season; sure hope so.

[Forever Xena]

I havent heard if its cancelled yet , but I hope not , even though I dont follow the series myself.

But for all the fans I hope it will go on

[katina2nd]

Thanks FX, I'll keep my fingers crossed, there's precious few shows worth watching nowadays, don't want to lose one of them.

[Mini Mia]

I don't know why they like to move shows around and then take them off for weeks at a time before airing new episodes. I'm beginning to think they make more money by pulling shows and using them for tax write-offs than actually trying to make them work.

[katina2nd]

You've struck one on my pet peeves MM, some strange people running the networks I reckon.

Same thing happens all the time here, changing time slots, pulling shows midway through a season, even mixing repeats in with new episodes.
New season of "Without a Trace" started a while back, ran for about four weeks, then I settled back in front of the tele the following week and lo and behold, a repeat, very frustrating.

[Mini Mia]

I've threatened to boycott television all together. I do watch less and less shows now. I used to watch at least 3 hours a night, every night. Now, Wednesday & Friday are the only nights I watch 3 hours in a roll.

I watch 2 hours on Sunday, 1 on Monday (though I tape 1 hour to watch later - 2 shows on at same time), 2 hours on Tuesday, 3 hours on Wednesday (tape 2 hours to watch later - 2 shows air at same time as 2 others), 2 hours on Thursday, 3 hours on Friday, & 0 hours on Saturday. I used to watch 1 hour on Saturday, but the WE network cancelled McLeod's Daughters at the end of season 3.

I've also cut out the soaps. Before I went to work I watched 3-1/2 hours of soaps per weekday. I've replaced them with Dr. Phil and Oprah. Although I watch less Oprah. I don't much care for the celebrity episodes.

I suppose pay television could be blamed for free TV being so wishy-washy. People have too many channels to flip to and less patience with slow moving shows.