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 wife and I really liked Chaos. Not really any kind of storyline to follow from one episode to another though. That’s the only downside. If you missed an episode you really wouldn’t know it because there was no bleedthrough, the storyline only lasted as long as an episode. In otherwords, every episode felt like it was episode #2. Other than that I liked everything else about it.
CBS following in the footsteps of Fox. The network that cancelled Firefly.
CHAOS is smart, great actors with nice chemistry. Love the stories and twists. Some of the characters still being developed. My wife and I would not miss the show. One of the few shows we enjoyed together. Too much Unreality TV out there. Friday was full, but with Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Smallville and others gone, Friday is wide open again. Though I wouldn’t compete with Fringe. CHAOS could be on Thursday in a different slot than Bones and I would be a happy camper. Please bring it back.
Definitely agree with all of these comments, i loved this show, & being a college student i also enjoyed the fact that it was on friday night, it gave me a nice show to look forward to after a hard week of classes. loved the sarcasm & wit behind the humor, it was so much more entertaining than most of the raunchy humor that tends to fill the time gaps of other television stations.
I <3 this show and hope someone picks it back up.
I agree with all of the above! This show was just fun to watch. It was humorous drama that was enjoyable and the chemistry of the actors was great. I would love to see more of it. CBS should try advertising it more and putting it in a time slot that is consistent and able to be found!!! I’m an NCIS fan and although this is more humorous, I think the chemistry between the actors could make it a go. It sure beats half the other shows out there. Its’ a new season and I can’t find anything to watch!!!!… Read more »
If the show didn’t get good ratings, it wasn’t because the show wasn’t good – its because it was in the wrong time slot, didn’t get enough publicity, got moved around! Chaos had excellent actors, good story lines, and hey, was better than most of the other shows on TV these days. Bring it back to regular television, Friday nights at 8:00 pm or 9:00 pm and keep it there.
This was a class show!! We need more of this kind on TV. It had humor, great plotlines, and exciting characters — sensitive and stood up for the good old USA!!
I thought this was a great show. Can’t figure out why they would cancel it. Please reconsider CBS. Freddy Martinez is worth watching – great acting.
Well the network did it again. My husband and I watched Chaos faithfully. We looked to see when the new season would start and found it has been cancelled. Come on CBS give it another chance. You have several in your line up I could do without.
My husband and i liked this program. It was entertaining, good action with humor plus no vulgar language or sex scenes. It is becoming more difficult every day to find good programs that do not have sex, vulgar language, etc. Some of us really do not care for that as entertainment.
The fact that the net work kept shifting the time the show aired from Friday to Saturday did not help at all. Like others have mentioned, better marketing for the show and a stable evening time to watch would have garnered a higher rating. Look at all the crap on between 7-8 pm Tue-Fri. Not everyone likes talent shows or dancing with the celebs. Give em another shot!
I agree. This was a really fun, great show. It should’ve been on a different night and better advertising. I didn’t even know it excited until after it was pulled. I watched all the eps online and except for the fact that ep 8 should’ve been #2, it was well done. I love the banter between the guys and some of the quirky characters. We need something that is fun to break up all the extreme drama shows. In my opinion.
With all the “crap” on TV. I can’t understand your thinking of cancelling this GR8T show!! It was just a nice show. Not much cursing and no real blood death stuff. Maybe that’s why some people didn’t like it. I know you need ratings, but i think we need some good show’s even if the ratings are low, for the rest of us that don’t like all that blood and guts stuff. Please bring it back, thank you. sign all of my family.
I agree with the previous writer–great show!! We have missed it. Please bring it back CBS and promote it,
I miss it too. I enjoyed every episode
My husband and I have been looking for Chaos to resurface this fall and then found this information about it being cancelled. Give it another chance CBS or sell it to another network that will give it a better time and give it the proper advertising. We stumbled on it last spring and then would search the next week to find it. This show had great actors, subtle humor, action, and the entertainment was relaxing. The good guys won and the bad guys were taken care of in a sometimes humerous way.
I loved this show!!! It’s another example of the major networks not giving the shows a chance to gain a following. It was smart and funny and I really, REALLY hope that CBS will air the remaining shows and that it gains a following.