Combat Hospital: ABC TV Series Cancelled; No Season Two

ABC’s medical TV show, Combat Hospital, has been cancelled after one season on the air. Though the show had plenty of fans, the demise certainly doesn’t come as a surprise.

Combat Hospital (previously known as The Hot Zone) follows the lives and work of a group of doctors and nurses from various countries at a military hospital in Southern Afghanistan. The diverse cast includes Deborah Kara Unger, Michelle Borth, Elias Koteas, Terry Chen, Arnold Pinnock, and Luke Mably.

The TV show debuted in June 2011 to a disappointing 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 5.32 million total viewers. The second episode of Combat Hospital dropped 8% in the demo and the following week’s installment fell another 9%. Week four then dropped 20% — to a 0.8 demo rating.

The first season ended up averaging a 0.9 rating in the demo with just 3.82 million viewers. ABC had purchased 13 episodes of season one from Canada’s Shaw Media but opted to only air 12 of them. The series performed well on Canada’s Global network but was a disappointment in the US. It was no shock when ABC decided that they didn’t want to order a second season.

Once word came down that ABC wasn’t interested in the show any longer, Shaw (who also produces Rookie Blue) tried to find another partner here in the states to help offset some of the production costs. Those efforts were unsuccessful and the show was officially cancelled.

On the positive side, there’s word that Combat Hospital will be released on DVD so fans here in the United States will be able to see and own all 13 episodes.

What do you think? Are you sorry that there won’t be a season two for Combat Hospital?