HOW THE MOST PROMISING NEW FALL DRAMA LOST ITS ‘COMMAND’
It just might be the steepest, single-season decline in TV history.
So what went wrong with “Commander in Chief”?
Just about everything.
ABC’s “prestige” drama about a female president was once considered the most promising new show of the current season.
But a little more than seven months after it premiered last fall with the highest ratings of any new series, “Commander in Chief” is leaving office in disgrace.
The hard truth: The show lost 60 percent of its audience from its debut last Sept. 27 through last Thursday. (The show attracted 16,365,000 viewers when it premiered at 9 p.m. Tuesdays. It fell to 6,513,000 last Thursday at 10 p.m.)
Another hard truth: It was never that good in the first place.
It should have been. On paper, the show had a quality cast, led by Geena Davis, Oscar winner for “The Accidental Tourist,” as the president, and Donald Sutherland, a movie legend, as her archrival.
And it had a highly promotable premise – the nation’s first woman president – with which to trigger a thousand prelaunch magazine and newspaper stories.
But all the publicity in the world couldn’t mask the show’s deficiencies.
For openers, it had the misfortune to be on TV at the same time as “The West Wing.”
NBC’s White House drama might have been in its last season, in a time period – Sundays at 8 p.m. – where long-time fans had trouble finding it, but as far as presidential TV shows go, “The West Wing” remains the gold standard.
“Commander in Chief” was anything but golden.
President Mackenzie Allen’s White House never felt authentic, a situation that had nothing to do with the president’s gender. Compared to the Bartlet administration of “The West Wing,” President Allen’s White House was an empty place seemingly staffed by six people under the age of 35 who didn’t know what they were doing.
It’s likely the show’s quality suffered from the behind-the-scenes turmoil that saddled the series with three different bosses in its inaugural season.
It was also harmed by spotty scheduling, including a four-week hiatus in December and a 10-week absence from Jan. 31 to April 13.
Whatever the problems on or off the screen, ABC this week decided it had had enough of “Commander in Chief,” yanking it for the remainder of the May sweeps and the season – both of which end officially on May 24.
ABC plans to burn off the show’s remaining three episodes (19 were produced; 16 have aired) in June. And while a spokeswoman would not concede the show is gone for good, it’s doubtful it will be on ABC’s fall schedule when the new lineup is announced later this month.
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