A couple weeks ago, CBS debuted a new Friday night series, taking over the 8pm timeslot previously held by The Defenders and Medium. The latter was cancelled and ended in January while The Defenders performed terribly and is almost guaranteed not to be renewed. So, how does CHAOS stack up? Another cancellation or an easy renewal?
CHAOS is a dramady that follows a group of rogue CIA spies in the Clandestine Administration and Oversight Services (CHAOS) division. They take on threats to national security and combat in-fighting, incompetence and bureaucratic gridlock. The TV show stars Freddy Rodriguez, Eric Close, James Murray, Tim Blake Nelson, Carmen Ejogo, Christina Cole, and Kurtwood Smith.
The series debuted to a truly terrible 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.53 million total viewers. While the show won its timeslot in total viewers, it’s the demo number that really matters to the network and its advertisers. The demo number was so bad that CHAOS was actually lower than a repeat of FOX’s Kitchen Nightmares reality show.
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In week two, CHAOS dropped even lower — to a 0.9 demo rating and 5.73 million viewers. It seems very likely that CHAOS’ numbers will drop even lower tonight.
After just two weeks on the air, CHAOS is averaging a 1.0 rating and 6.13 million viewers. Medium was cancelled in that timeslot for only being able to muster a 1.4 season average and that’s significantly better than CHAOS. The Defenders averaged a 1.3 rating on Friday nights and its essentially doomed so there’s just no way CHAOS will survive.
CBS ordered 13 episodes of CHAOS and it seems that they’ve already been produced. If they hadn’t, CBS would be shutting down production to cut their losses.
As it is, unless the numbers go up, CBS will very likely pull the series from the schedule very soon. They can probably get better ratings by airing reruns of their crime dramas. They could ship the series off to Saturday nights but reruns already get about the same numbers on that night and CHAOS probably wouldn’t do as well. In short, CHAOS is a bomb.
But, what do you think? Do you like the TV series? Should CBS keep running it or take it off the air and cancel it already?
Image courtesy CBS.
It was an entertaining show,and would have done well if given a real chance.
Love (loved?) the show. The characters were really fun. Too bad if CBS cancels the show. The real loser is CBS. I’m sick of cooking contests, kicking people out of the tribe, and great races, etc. I’m ready for clever writing and acting.
I really hope that Chaos returns. It’s fun . . . a comedic drama with the emphasis on the comedy. The casting is perfect and the writing shows a quality I hadn’t seen in the shows which used to be in that timeslot. I also liked Human Target and, early on at least, Lie to Me.
It would seem the programming morons at ANY of the networks would need directions to be able to find their arses. Network television is a collective loser on any given day or night of the week. Good programming shows up irregularly and is regularly dumped in favor of the pap that now passes for entertainment. Network Rule of Thumb: If it requires a functioning brain with a power twice that of a bedpan to comprehend and enjoy, kill it. Bring on the slop that panders to the lowest common denominator. In this case, that would probably be the Network Programmers… Read more »
Enjoyed the quirky chemistry amongst the characters and the originality of Chaos. A true loss.
Seriously why does this show have to be cancelled it’s an excellent show I mean how could you cancel a CIA show as action packed and funny as this one
keep itttttttttt
omg i lik the showww
its so funny and intersting!!!!!!!
BEST SHOW EVER! Don’t Cancell It!!!!!!!!
why do i always LOVE shows that get cancelled so quickly. this is the best show i have found in years. i loved firefly and wonderfalls and both of those shows were in the same boat, not given enough of a chance. i hope they release this on dvd soon!
How could they cancel it? It was one of the few shows on tv I bothered to tune into these days. Granted I missed the second episode but the other two had a wit and subtle humor that is rarely found in shows these days. Plus an incredible cast. Of course it would have taken time to build a following, but it would have been well worth it.
Reminds me of another cancelled show, Firefly. Didn’t they put out a movie afterwards?
[…] detailed here, CHAOS debuted to a horrible 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.53 million viewers. That was […]
I like the show! It is a good mix of serious and silly. Unfortunately, I also liked “The Defenders”… And “The Good Guys” (Fox), and “Human Target” (Fox), and “Lie to Me” (Fox), and “No Ordinary Family” (ABC), and “Chuck” (NBC), and all the other reasonably decent shows from the last season…
Sigh, I guess I’ll just be relegated to NetFlix instead.
Defenders was better but i know its not coming back.
This is what happens when you air two shows sooner at the same time and put a new show at that same time slot. There’s no way that the fans of either show will be tuning in. I’m glad that CBS tries on Fridays, but this isn’t a good way to come back. Part of the possibility of the lack of viewer’s was the premiere date being April 1 and some people might have thought that is was a joke. I do like the show. It’s like the Unit, because it is hard to understand it sometimes but interesting enough… Read more »
Bring Medium back!!!!!!!!