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.
I find it rather odd that the viewers prefer these idiot reality shows to off the wall entertainment. I really enjoyed Chaos. It had a good cast & great story lines, a little unbelievable, no doubt, but I watch TV to be “entertained” not shown how stupid people act just to make some money. I hope another network, like USA, TNT or Fox picks up this show because all 3 of these networks have got terrific lineups.
I really loved the show. It started a bit slow, but really made up for that quickly! Great characters, good writing, and not so dark in nature as are some of CBS shows. I really hope they either play the remaining episodes or allow USA or another network air it. It was a bad time slot and had very little promo. CBS, please let it have a chance!
This is a great show and I sincerely hope they take it off hiatus and run it. It’s like the other side of Burn Notice another brilliantly quirky show that doesn’t follow the same old predictable format a la CSI
Right on.
My wife and I really liked this show. We kind of just stumbled on it one Friday night. Really disappointed that it is not still on. I kept looking for it to set the DVR. Hope they release the rest of the episodes. I would like to watch them.
I can’t believe this show was cancelled! We started a watching party in our media room that seats 21 people. The neighborhood was so excited with the show. This is so disappointing!!
WHOA! Been watching and waiting for it to come back! Really liked the show. Hope CBS will reconsider.
I ‘caught’ this show by chance and had never seen any previews for it, but found it ‘fun’ and hope that it will return with more pre-advertising!
this was the best phucking show on tv in that genre and about the cia, well paced, great casting, acting, editing, directing, story, it was shot so well, it didn’t even seem like it was shot in vancouver, tv officially sucks ass, i hate u people, u wouldn’t know something good, if it came out of your ass, the problem with tv these days is, too many ******* stupid idiots watch it, and really great shows don’t make it, because of the majority of stupid people on this earth, they rule the planet with their bad taste, whether its american… Read more »
I thought the show was great and am sorry to hear that CBS has pulled it.
The show its really good, the promotion for it suck. i only become aware of the show because i was looking for new series on hulu. I watch cbs alot and i never really saw any commercials about the show.
I got out friday night the show would do alot better any other day of the week
The show’s target demographic is obviously young males, a group that is particularly not likely to be home watching TV on Friday nights. Also, CBS barely promoted the show before its launch, so how many people actually knew it was there to tune into?
I disagree. Anyone with a sense of adventure or misadventure would like this show. I don’t think it targeted to any sex or age level.
My wife and I will miss the show as well. We thought it was funny and enjoyed having a light show on at 8PM. We are frankly tired of police, lawyer, and doctor dramas. Of course, we also liked Eleventh Hour which was bumped for Medium. So, we are happy to read that Medium was dumped. Flashpoint? We won’t watch it. It took us 4 or 5 episodes to finally accept NCIS: LA. We haven’t really accepted Suspect Behavior and are about to stop watching it after 10 episodes. But we love Criminal Minds. My point is that 3 episodes… Read more »
I will miss Chaos. It was just off-beat enough to be interesting. By far the most fun spy themed show since I-SPY!
i’m really going to miss this show :-/, but if they’re not airing why don’t they just release the rest of the episodes online?
Chaos had the potential to be a very good show. It was funny and quirky – if anybody took it seriously, they’re stupid-crazy. I hope they put it on at a different time/day. CBS exec’s must have ADHD; need immediate results or scrub it. They certainly never nurture the right stuff. This is exactly why so many viewers don’t bother watching a new show on CBS…they cancel it! It’s a catch-22: Watch it, love it, and lose it? or just save yourself the frustration that is CBS…
I know. I agree.