As expected, FOX’s juggernaut American Idol is back with a vengeance. The reality singing series has been garnering incredible ratings and as a result, the other networks are feeling the pinch. Interestingly enough, another reality show is the first casualty.
Armed & Famous debuted on Wednesday, January 10th at 8pm on CBS. The series followed five celebrities through police academy training, graduation and then on patrol as reserve police officers in Muncie, Indiana. The celebrity officers were CHiPs’ Erik Estrada, singer La Toya Jackson, The Osbournes’ Jack Osbourne, Jackass’ Jason “Wee Man” Acuna, and wrestler Trish Stratus.
On the day of the series premiere, the Armed & Famous cast presented Muncie’s police department with three fully equipped 2007 Hummer SUVs. At the ceremony, Muncie Police Chief Joe Winkle offered Osbourne a full-time position on his force. Osbourne respectfully declined but asked the Chief for a letter of recommendation to a Los Angeles police academy. It’s too bad this dedication didn’t translate into bigger viewer numbers.
The first and second episodes attracted only 5.5 million households each. The latest episode, up against Idol, experienced a huge drop in viewers. Only 3.5 million households tuned in. That’s apparently enough for CBS. The network has cancelled Armed & Famous effective immediately.
CSI: NY will take the Wedesday slot on January 31st and Criminal Minds will fill in on February 7th. CBS’ Jericho series returns for its midseason debut with a recap episode on February 14th. The remaining unaired episodes of Armed & Famous may air during the Summer months though, personally, I wouldn’t bet on it. 
What does CBS expect against American Idol? I liked the show except for LaToya-what a space head.
Maybe somebody at CBS will finish it out as a summer replacement.
CBS should of let the show air, it was a good show
We liked the show and tuned in every week to watch it and taped it when we weren’t home to watch it live. Why would CBS cancel such a good new show? Just another show canceled that we loved watching. Getting so tired of that happening.
thats ashamed i like the show..why are you trying to fix,something thats not broken?
I think you should have kept it on the air because it was about the only thing i watched. I can’t belive that you would do that were you sick because i think you were. today when i found out that you canceled it i was balling my eyes out!! now i have to watch stupid american idol. i just can’t belive you would cancel a show that excellent!! it makes me so mad@!!!!!!1
I liked the show!
I think you should of kept it on the Air
I am very disappointed that this show was cancelled. I like it very much. It was a great reality show that us kids could watch.
The show was great i cant believe how other police shows like cops can be on the air for years and when a semi scripted show like Armed & Famous gets on the air it is quickly shot down by ratings. The remaining episodes will be airing on Vh1 starting in early February with a first five season marathon. Great show just not enough ratings to keep it going!
I liked the show.
I enjoyed the show very much and for once you could actually see as a civlian what it was like to ride in a patrol car. It is not 24 hours of high speed chases and shoot outs so this brought it down to the day to day routine which most people just didn’t understand.
Its to bad alot of people in Muncie didn’t want the show to be on to start with but I thought it turned out pretty good, it was funny and made us laugh, I think it should have stayed on , it only had 3 more weeks to go anyway. To bad the little shows always get beat out by the bigger ones.
I liked this show.
Awesome news! Not that it really matters since one of the best new shows from CBS, JERICHO, is returning Feb 14th.
Terrible shows like Armed and Stupid should be airing on cable networks like VH-1.
I think this is the first real good news I have read on your site. 😉 Well, the cancellation of Studio 60 was good news, but that ended up being more rumor than real.