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.
My husband and I loved the show we do not watch reality shows and just came upon it by chance. Choas was great, please bring it back. The cast really worked well together and the writing was really different. We have been waiting for it to come back on TV like Human Target and Nikita and just thought we were waiting for new episodes how sad you need to rethink this CBS
We enjoy Choas! Light hearted but spy drama. We miss the program. I dvr’d and watched the next day, so as not to miss program. If they take this off n put a program like Pan Am on, that’s just unthinkable !!
We always watched it or DVR it. CHAOS is a great light and clean fun show.
Wonderful characters. I hope it comes back.
I loved Chaos! I want them to bring it back-my husband loved it too. It was one of the few shows we watched together. My thoughts on why it didn’t do so well in ratings? I never saw an ad for it. I just stumbled on it when searching my dish schedule. Maybe that was part of it. It wasn’t the greatest show EVER, but a lot better than CSI-NY, reruns or otherwise in my opinion.
My husband and I completely enjoyed this show, I guess I thought it was just on the seasonal hiatus. Very upset that it’s been cancelled. How many decent shows are still out there that families can watch together in the evenings??
We love this show. Had the network given it a better time slot mid week it would have had a very good chance. The actors were fresh and the dialogue witty. The pace worked well and the combination of drama and comedy was a welcome change from the formula cop dramas.
This show should be given another chance. Run the unseen episodes and the original set durning the midweek evening time period and see what the response is.
I enjoyed the show and it’s “little bit of everything” from drama to humour to action. It was relaxing entertainment with a look at other countries around the world (from an American point of view, of course). I like it when shows and their creators don’t take themselves too seriously and just enjoy making great interesting entertainment!
Please bring back CHAOS!!!!!! It is one of the better shows. Sick of the reality shows. We need more shows like CHAOS.
CHAOS is a great show! The cast was perfect. Bring it back but NOT to Friday night. Friday night timeslot was the problem. Way to go CBS.
On friday nights CHAOS was the show i loved watching, and i don’t think CBS advertised the show enough,,,,,,,, PLEASE ! BRING IT BACK!!!!!
I thought the show was great! There wasn’t a lot of pre-publicity on it to even give it a chance.. I just happened to be channel surfing at the time. Hope they do the rest of the episodes!
I never discovered this show until recently, due to the complete lack of advertisements for it.
Please bring it back, as I’m in love.
I still miss the show, there is nothing else like it on TV. It was well written, good chemistry between the characters. I liked the mix of comedy and drama. I do not watch reality shows, they suck. I know a lot of my co workers and friends also hate most of the reality shows. You are not fooling anyone , they are cheaper to produce. BRING CHAOS Back.
WE LOVE THIS SHOW AND COULDN’T WAIT FOR EACH EPISODE TO AIR! DON’T CANCEL. SELL IT BETTER! GREAT CAST, JUST THE RIGHT MIX OF HUMOR AND DRAMA! WE WANT MORE!!!!!!
Bring back Chaos!! I loved it and have never cared enough about a show until now to leave a message. Give the show another chance!! Better times OT and some marketing!!