After seven years on the beat, the show’s over for Detective Lily Rush (Kathryn Morris). CBS has officially cancelled Cold Case.
Each episode of Cold Case begins by showing an unsolved crime from the past. The scene then flashes forward to the present day and a group of homicide detectives try to piece together what really happened, using old evidence and new interviews. The series stars Morris, Danny Pino, John Finn, Jeremy Ratchford, Thom Barry, and Tracie Thoms.
Cold Case began in September of 2003 and quickly became a staple of the CBS Sunday night schedule. The crime drama had a successful first season and, by season two, was averaging a 3.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 15.1 million viewers. For the next couple seasons, total viewership fell a bit but the all-important demo numbers rose, reaching a 3.8 in season four.
Unfortunately the ratings have come down quite a bit since then. In season five, the show averaged a 2.9 rating and about 12 million viewers. Last season, Cold Case sank lower, to an average of a 2.7 rating and CBS made a choice between renewing ailing Without a Trace or Cold Case. They chose to keep Cold Case but may have regretted it pretty quickly. This season, the show’s ratings dropped even further to a 2.15 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 9.6 million viewers.
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So, while the overall viewership isn’t terrible, the demo numbers are and that’s what brings the ad dollars. CBS often has the most total viewers, but they are often lacking in the 18-49 demo department.
To no surprise, CBS has cancelled Cold Case after seven years on the air. The show won’t be back for season eight next fall. Sadly, the show is not available on DVD. It’s believed that securing the rights for the show’s extensive use of period music is problematic.
What do you think? Are you sorry to see the series go? What could have been done to help the TV show’s ratings?
Image courtesy CBS.
like others before me, i too was patiently waiting for the return of cold case and my impatience as the year draws to an end made me look it up only to find that it has been cancelled and my sunday night tv has been ruined. :'( it’s sad they felt the need to cance it and, by the way, without a trace was a good show too and to see that one got cancelled to keep the other and the other ended up getting cut too… sad…
I did the same thing, waiting for cold case on Sunday Nites, first at 8 then 9 then 10:pm and they started showing CSI in Florida in the time slot. Now I hear its cancelled. It was my favorite show outside of two and a half men. I suggest showing cold case during week at prime time, not Sunday during Football Season! Oh well, I hope someone would reconsider!
that’s the way we picked our president, what sucks the most wins, that’s the ticket, idiots
Cold case was awesome, Cbs always seems to cancell the best like “The Unit”, and now “cold Case”, yeah that’s the ticket, kill what works, dumbasses
I kept flipping the channel on Sunday nights – thinking they have moved the time, moved the date. Not cancelled the show. The problem is that thinking people’s TV is being eliminated and I can’t stand the dumbing down of America. If we choose our next President based on a Reality TV show. I quit!
My husband and I have been wating and waiting for the return of Cold Case. I finally googled today only to be disappointed that the show has been cancelled. One of the few shows these days that still had good writers and came with a set of society morals and good acting. ABC you have let us down. Seeking 18 – 49ers. Where does that leave the rest of us? the 49 -69ers. At least you can count on our age group to be loyal fans. You won’t find that in the 18-49ers. They tire quickly, bore quickly, and are… Read more »
I too waited for cold case only to google and find out it was cancelled. My only question is WHY????????
I was wondering the same thing, and then I see this. What a bummer. I love this show and I’m really sad to see it’s not coming back.
Have been waiting patiently for Cold Case to start and nothing. Decided to Google it and found out it is not going to be on anymore. Very disappointed. You keep shows like big brother and other stupid reality shows on the air but don’t keep a show on that keeps your interest week after week. Lily and the rest of the actors were awesome. Can’t believe you keep the crap reality shows on air ahead of Cold Case. Really disappointed in your choice.
I also was looking for season 8 only to be disappointed by the news it was cancelled. Not only did the show create interest with the viewer to solve the crime along with the detectives, I really enjoyed the music selected for the appropriate time period, but the clothes (like if you are over your late 40’s you have not money to spend on their advertisers????? Another wrong assumption by CBS!) . I’m very disappointed they cancelled Cold Case to see CBS keep some silly programs that really could not begin to compare with Cold Case. Although I am in… Read more »
I loved Cold Case… and Without a Trace. I can’t stand when TV stations just cancel a show like that. If they want to cancel a show I think they should have it for one more season to give it a series finale and end the show correctly so the faithful fans aren’t just waiting around wondering when the show is supposed to come back on…only to find out through google that it is not. Especially when there was stuff going on and we are like “well I wanna know what happened next.” So like I said they should, you… Read more »
I kept thinking,..when is Cold Case coming on? Are they bringing it in 1/2 way through the season in order to jumpstart this new lame company reality show that is so PR driven? I had NO idea they cancelled what I thought was one of the better shows on TV. No ending to the stories we’ve watched faithfully, no final show, no nothing! I knew so many people who watched this! Bummer CBS. Changing the time-slot and doing what was done, was classic network tromping on a show. We studied this in jouralism school on how the network brought down… Read more »
All the characters were just the best! I, like Lisa, have been patiently waiting for all the foolish temporary shows to get over, so that Cold Cases would be back. I also found out about its demise through Google. What a disappointment! Lily was just the most likeable, most human actress in such a series–very classy and always believable, unlike Bones–how does that stay on?
I have been waiting patiently for the show to start only to do a google search and find that they cancelled the show!!!!!!! First Without a Trace now Cold Case? They need to really think about what they are doing over there. Those two shows were awesome. I heard that they cancelled Without a Trace and kept that stupid show Numbers because Numbers cost less to produce. Well, I hope they are happy with their choice. Without a Trace was much better and now they have taken away Cold Case. I loved the going back in time and seeing the… Read more »
I just found out Cold Case was cancelled ,I too was waiting patiently for this show to start. I was just talking to my wife about Cold Case and Idecided to google search to see if the show was going to start up again. Another good show cancelled again,I too like seeing the cases and going back in time to the period for when the actually crime occured.
This show was one of CBS’s Best shows. Everyone I knew would make sure they were in front of the TV at 8pm Central every Sunday night for “cold case”. And to hear that to notable scream “AWWWWWWWWWW!” The characters the plots were so creative. This show had the best writers. I think they should have tried to change the time it was on. We all know that it wouldn’t do well against “Boardwalk Empire”.:) It would be nice if it was brought back.