Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh has encountered lots of scary killers and tough cases in her work in the Boston Medical Examiner’s Office. Played by Jill Hennessy, Jordan is sexy, smart and fearless but, is she any match for her the biggest challenge yet?
Crossing Jordan debuted on September 24, 2001 on NBC. The title of the show plays off the lead character’s name and also alludes to the biblical story of the Hebrews crossing the Jordan River (often used as a metaphor for passing from this world to the after-life). The series initially involved Jordan and her father (Ken Howard) role-playing various murder case scenarios, allowing Jordan to figure out the crime’s circumstances. As the show progressed, the series has evolved into focusing more on its ensemble cast and their various cases. The current sixth season cast includes such diverse actors as Miguel Ferrer, Ravi Kapoor, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Valentine, Ravi Kapoor, Steve Valentine, Leslie Bibb, and Jerry O’Connell.
Jordan has been airing on Sunday nights since its midseason return on January 21, 2007. The show has been pretty consistently finishing in third place on Sunday nights. More importantly, it’s been attracting a low percentage of 18-19 year old viewers, the most desirable demographic of people for advertisers. Quite honestly, those are the numbers that networks care about the most.
NBC has now announced that its reshuffling its Wednesday and Sunday night schedules beginning March 4th. Deal or No Deal is moving to Sundays to take the 9pm slot while the sixth season of The Apprentice will shift to the less competitive 10pm timeslot. This move will create an “all reality show” night for NBC. Crossing Jordan in turn is moving to Wednesday nights (starting March 7th at 9pm) where it will be surrounded by fellow dramas Friday Night Lights and Medium.
That would sound like a good plan except that Crossing Jordan will now be up against the incredibly popular American Idol on FOX and Criminal Minds on CBS – a combination that previously scared ABC enough to move Lost. Deal or No Deal was doing pretty well as counter programming on Wednesday nights, giving viewers an alternative to the other networks who served up drama (CBS), comedy (ABC), and reality (FOX) programming.
Criminal Minds is consistently far more popular than Crossing Jordan and that’s not likely to change. Does NBC honestly expect this move to help Crossing Jordan or has the peacock network already given up on the series? Are they just burning off the episodes? Even before season six began, insiders suspected that this would be Crossing Jordan’s last. With most viewers (especially those 18-49) watching American Idol, is there any hope Crossing Jordan can survive? Not very likely. Unfortunately for fans, this may be one case that even Jordan Cavanaugh can’t win. Stay tuned! 
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Crossing Jordan
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Of course the ratings were low. It was next to impossible to figure out when the show was going to be on. Despite this, I rarely missed it, thanks to my DVR. There is so much garbage on the TV, the bar just keeps getting lower and lower. Crossing Jordan is a great show; give it a chance. There are still folks out there who appreciate a good, solid well written show.
Crossing Jordan is one of the only Crime/ CSI tv shows that has a female as the main character. Axing this show only shows that tv is still controlled by the male race.
I agree with all comments I have read on Crossing Jordan. Get rid of all the stupid reality shows, I don’t even know how anyone can go on these shows. Get rid of games shows shown in the evenings.
Saturday is a good day or even or even Fridays at 10PM after Friday Night Lights & Las Vegas.
Television channels ask for comments but do they ever read what we want or say?
Like their opposite channel CBS cancelled Close to Home with one of my favorite star David Elliot James. I was sorry to see JAG leave.
WE WANT CROSSING JORDAN.
Don’t understand why channels which days & times.
Colleen Allis
PLEASE!!! Dont get rid of Crossing Jordan! NBC…stop manipulating time slots for failure! There are so many things that have to happen and develope! Jordan/Woody…Lilly/Bug…and now there is Madeline! Why introduce another character/situation if you are taking the show off the air! Here is another killer…why isnt Crossing Jordan available on DVD?
Please dont take Jordan off the air! I love this show, and Jordan is truley a character to look up too!
Crossing Jordan is my favorite show. I have been watching it since it started. I love the cast! I hope this show will return, and with the same characters. I LOVE jordan and woody, and I would also like to see Lilly and Bug (Madeline too) finally get together for real! I LOVE this show! Please don’t cancel!
I agree with the others I don’t want to see Crossing Jordan canceled. Why does everyone care about if the 18-19 yr. old crowd is watching it? There are so many shows on for them to watch as is and might I add “stupid ones”. Most of the kids from 18-25 only watch reality or game shows. So, is that all you’re going to put on television?
I like Crossing Jordan–let the people watch daytime TV-there’s all the game shows they want. If you want reality read the newspaper
com on you can do it what stopping the producers, money not good ratings is it the actors dont want to do it anymore is that the real reason? i live in a australia and i enjoyed watching it all the time i not alone, so go for it Why NOT
I have watched Crossing jordan since day one and I really hope to see season 7 and even more seasons if it is possible. I realize that she is due to have a baby any time now but I hope that, that she doesn’t stop doing it for she has had a child 4 years ago and it didn’t stop her from doing the series before so I hope she comes back to do the next series. I wish that this is going to be good luck for the writers to bring it back.
What finale? I want more! My favorite show! So who was the fool that canceled it?
It’s 2008 its been canceled. I’m still pissed off because it was taken off. That was the one show I looked forward to seeing every week. The cast worked very well together in making an original show. I even got my whole family into watching it. It was the one night I knew for sure we would all agree on something to watch. NBC your stupid for canceling it.
OMG! This is so stupid. I love watching Crossing Jordan so much that I continue to watch Season 6 for the 3rd time everyday at 12:00pm. I wish you guys would bring it back, and continue with a 7th season. I would love to see what happeneds with Lily and Bug and the new baby, Jordan and Woody…will they make it?…
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