Right on schedule, CBS has decided to ditch their new Friday night TV series, CHAOS, after just a few weeks on the air. The show stumbled in the ratings right from the start and never recovered. It’s no longer on the air but is it cancelled?

A dramatic comedy, CHAOS follows a small group of CIA misfit spies who make up the Clandestine Administration and Oversight Services (CAOS). In addition to taking on threats to national security, they also must take on redtape and typical government bureaucracy. The TV series stars Freddy Rodriguez, Eric Close, James Murray, Tim Blake Nelson, Carmen Ejogo, Christina Cole, and Kurtwood Smith.

As detailed here, CHAOS debuted to a horrible 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.53 million viewers. That was quite a bit lower than the season average of Medium, a series that CBS cancelled because of poor ratings.

In the second week, CHAOS fell even lower to a 0.9 rating in the demo and 5.73 million viewers. Last Friday night, bumped up ever so slightly in the demo, to a 1.0 rating and 5.683 million. Unfortunately, that was far from enough of a gain to save the TV series.

CBS has pulled CHAOS from the schedule effective immediately. This week, a rerun of CSI: NY will fill the timeshot — and probably get better ratings. Next week, the previously scheduled The Royal Wedding: Modern Majesty will air. Then, beginning on May 6th, new episodes of Flashpoint will take over.

The network has 10 episodes of CHAOS left sitting on the shelf. CBS hasn’t said if there are any plans to release the unaired installments. Though CHAOS hasn’t been officially cancelled yet, there’s no way that they’ll be renewing it for a second season.

UPDATE: A statement from CBS indicates that the show will return to the schedule at some point in the future.

What do you think? Why did the TV show do so poorly, even by Friday night standards? Will you miss CHAOS?

Image courtesy CBS.