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Failure To Command
24-Jan-2006
Written by: Ellen Wernecke
Despite its Golden Globe, ABC’s “Commander in Chief“ is taking a beating in the ratings. Why?
It got more press than almost any show that debuted last fall and captured some 16 million viewers for its pilot episode. Even after scoring a Golden Globe for star Geena Davis last week, "Commander in Chief," a drama about the first female U.S. president, is not reaching its audience targets according to network executives.
Touchstone Television, which produces the show, is reportedly at a loss as to why the Tuesday drama, which in the first six episodes was able to hold off time-slot competitors like "My Name is Earl" and "The Biggest Loser" and which was marketed like last year's hit dramas "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," has been losing audience share steadily since November. The show had lost half its viewers since the pilot when it returned with original episodes January 10.
And it's only going to get tougher for President Davis and co. to steal viewers from Fox's "American Idol," which premiered January 16, and NBC's upcoming coverage of the Olympics in Turin, Italy.
How could a show with so much press -- and that overwhelmingly positive -- falter in the ratings? Certainly, creator Rod Lurie ("Line of Fire" and the big-screen political drama "The Contender") stepped down after only six episodes to pursue another series, but veteran exec Steven Bochco (with producing credits from "L.A. Law" and "Hill Street Blues" to last summer's Iraq drama "Over There") took his place -- not exactly a network abandonment. Maybe the viewing public is simply tired of political dramas (witness the recent demise of seventh-season drama "The West Wing"). Rumors of production slowdowns on the set may have caused the show's rollout of new episodes to be delayed to the point that viewers simply lost interest. It's not as if ABC is suffering elsewhere -- between castaways, housewives and the troubled doctors on "Grey's Anatomy," its third dramatic hit of last season, the network can afford to have patience with its Tuesday-night schedule... if only for so long. Still, it's curious how much muscle it has put behind midseason launch "Emily's Reasons Why Not," which has already bit the dust, and tired returnee "The Bachelor: Paris."
It doesn't look like "Commander in Chief" is going to have an "Arrested Development"-style afterlife if it doesn't survive its first season. "Commander in Chief" has already had a longer run than other dramas of the season like last fall's ill-fated "Reunion," but the network may not be willing to put in any more money on it.
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