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. 
This show was so entertaining
I miss the show at least you could run it in the summer instead of borning us to tears with a bunch of other shows.
My daughter and I both liked watching this show
2 thumbs down to CBS
i like that show. cbs are ******* for taking off f**k amercan idol it’s just the save music anyway
CBC – haven’t you ever heard or recording an episode while watching another. I miss the show – it was alot of fun watching Latoya and the others being cops. Bring it back!!!!
My wife and I thought that this was going to be the stupidest show on tv when we heard about it. I don’t know why we watched the first episode but we LOVED it. We tuned in every week to see what was going to happen next. I had a feeling it was yanked but just confirmed it by reading this board. It’s a shame. We really wanted to see how it finished. If someone knows if/when they will air the remaining episodes, please post it. Thanks.
I really enjoyed this show. I was getting my whole family into watching it and it goes off the air. I feel it was a good product that didn’t get enough air time. Most of the other stuff on TV is so low brow. Give us a break and bring it back. There are too few tv shows the whole family can watch together. Maybe I should just stick with watching shows on the disney channel with my kids…
omgosh i love this show!! saw only a couple of episodes but it got me hooked. no wonder i couldn’t watch the show on CBS. sad to hear it go.
I am so upset that Armed and Famous was cancelled. American Idol is old news, and I can’t believe that people would rather watch that than this show. There’s more to learn from a group of new police officers, than a handful of people who know how to sing. I don’t know what this world is coming to. I hope they at least put the season on DVD so I can watch the episodes that never aired. It’s a damn shame.
To bad that the negative comments about Armed and Famous ….. shows me the depth of their little minds..there are things to be learned from the show instead of the stupid show opposite it…well thats television for you…
To bad that the negative comments about Armed and Famous ….. shows me the depth of their little minds..there are things to be learned from the show instead of the stupid show opposite it…well thats television for you…
It’s typical of CBSto cancel shows that people like. That is the way they work.
I love armed and famous!!! I’m so sick of stupid shows like Idol where it’s the same thing every time. Armed and Famous was fresh, interesting and fun! It was totally awesome to see the rookies grow with each day and see the people they helped. CBS is stupid to expect anything more if you put it up against something like Idol. The should have kept the show and moved it to another time. I loved it! p.s. I have two cops in my family and they loved it to!
I thought this was a great show. I had the Tivo set so I wouldn’t miss it. I agree with some of the other comments, put it on a different night and see what ratings it will get. Also, very impressed with Jack Osbourne. He would make a great full-time cop!
Personally I thought this was a really good show. Funny, serious, emotional, all the emotional gambits of life that as a police officer you see and go through. To try to stack any show against Idol is stupid on CBS’s part. I think CBS would have been smarter to move it to another time slot. It really was an entertaining show and worth watching.
Dennis
Prescott AZ
I feel like every time something clean for the family comes on CBS DOES NOT LISTEN TO ITS VIEWERS. GET THE MESSAGE CBS, DONT KEEP PULLING SHOWS JUST BECAUSE IT DOESENT HAVE LANGUAGE OR SEX. Well its to bad that good tv shows are getting the boot. I just about dont watch TV any more. Well I guess that means just more movies for our house. Thanks to CBS.
I watched a past epesode last night on vh1 if I had known it was on CBS I would have been sure to watch it. As a former person who lived in Muncie it was great for me to see the cops working cause they didn’t before.