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.
Give the show a chance to develope the characters, three airings is not enough time to get everyone to watch!
i love it…it’s different and smart…great characters…i hope it survives
CBS is crazy! KEEP IT ON AIR!!!! They don’t give many new shows good enough advertisment to set it up to be succesful. I did not see any ads for CHAOS but happend to catch it and was lucky to get to see it. Finally, a show that’s truely funny, unique, and has real personality. They need to market the Demographic correctly, DUH! What are they thinking! KEEP IT ON AIR!!!!
I love this program. It is shades of “Get Smart” in the 60’s and 70’s. It is a fun hour. Each character has a personality of its own. When those personalities are mixed together it is a “riot” to watch. This program lifts my spirits and makes me happy. Too bad it is going off the air. Good clean fun is hard to find these days.
It’s a great show – CBS just hasn’t given it any support. It airs at odd times, and have practically no promotion. Excellent actors, great chemistry and decent scripts. It’s a departure from the typical fare. CBS needs to step out on faith & support their show. People will watch ~
I loved the show and several other people I know really enjoyed it as well. I don’t think they gave it a proper time slot or promoted it enough. I wish they would bring it back this summer and give it a second chance. It was funny and entertaining.
I was absolutely stunned when I saw that CHAOS had been cancelled. Too bad all the good shows get cancelled and the ones that seem to stay are the reality shows that emulate the worst of human behavior. After a hard days work I don’t want to go home and deal with reality.
What a great show – funny, feel-good spy fun that had heart. Shame on CBS for sentencing it to death by scheduling it on Friday night without any marketing. Like everyone else, I accidentally stumbled on to the show and immediately set the DVR to record the program. Perhaps it will get a second wind when the final 10 episodes air. Wouldn’t it be lovely if it was picked up by another network?
CHAOS is an enlightening show that is free of junk!! It’s plots are relatively clean and the characters just seem to mesh so well. I don’t know why CBS would cancel a show like this. I think this is exactly the kind of show America needs to see. CBS needs to do a better job of advertising!!! The only way I even heard about it was because I saw a commercial on one of our DVR’d shows. They never did anything with it online, or made eye catching commercials. If you want the show to have great ratings, the key… Read more »
My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed this show, although we stumbled on it looking for something to watch. Had to google afterwards to find out about the show. Why wasn’t it advertised better?
CHAOS is a great show !! My wife & I love It! We totally agree with the comment that it didn’t get good ratings because it was NOT WELL ADVERTISED! CBS, why did you drop the ball on this show ?? CBS is so short-sighted, it practically guaranteed that CHAOS would fail from the start because you DID NOT INVEST $$$ to advertise it! CBS has the chance to redeem itself now by bringing CHAOS back now, and this time support it !
I loved this show!!!, Why do they always cancel the good ones? Does not seem like it was on long enough to even BE rated.
Again I’ll say thank goodness for tivo!
If we hadn’t set up a series recording for this we would have missed it completely. Could someone please tell me what CBS is thinking putting it on a weekend night? This is when the demographic is out partying and enjoying the summer, DUH!. Who’s going to be watching tv when their freinds bring over beer and music. They should be putting it on when they’re bored and flattened on the couch on the weekday.
Agreed! This show is Great! What are they thinking?
I think this show is a refreshing change from all the more sombre spy movies. Finally spies with real personalities. Each is unique but the team together is not only effective, but FUNNY! My husband and I agree that CBS didn’t market this show heavily enough and they should not only air the shelved episodes, but make more. It seems like whenever a really unique (and funny) show comes along it gets canned before it’s had a chance. Just like “The Good Guys”!
I liked the show a lot. I don’t know why it got off to a slow start but the actors were delightful and the plots light hearted.