Though politics are an extra touchy subject these days, CBS decided to order a new drama about a blonde, female Secretary of State — Madam Secretary. Some feel that it’s a thinly-veiled allusion to Hillary Clinton while others see the show as a piece of fiction. Either way, CBS is a corporation that makes money from selling advertising and must attract healthy ratings to do that. Is Madam Secretary a success with viewers? Will it survive? Cancel or keep it?
On Madam Secretary, former CIA analyst Elizabeth McCord (Tèa Leoni) returns to public life after being recruited by the President (Keith Carradine) to become the new Secretary of State. The rest of the cast includes Željko Ivanek, Bebe Neuwirth, Geoffrey Arend, Patina Miller, Erich Bergen, Tim Daly, Katherine Herzer, and Evan Roe.
The series debuted on September 21st to a mediocre 2.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 14.75 million viewers. Last week, Madam Secretary dropped 30% in the demo to a 1.4 rating and dropped 14% in viewership, to 12.72 million. Those aren’t very encouraging numbers for a new series and CBS was surely expecting a lot better.
Low-rated, The Good Wife brings the network some prestige but CBS needs more shows with better numbers.
If Madam Secretary’s ratings stay at this level or continue to decline (particulalry in the demo), this new show will be in very real danger of being cancelled. On the positive side, the network is likely to be patient — at least for awhile. The ratings could go up, especially if the show starts getting some positive word of mouth.
But, what do you think? Do you like Madam Secretary? Will you keep watching? Do you think it should be cancelled? Do you think that it should/will end up being renewed for a second season?
Cancel….boring and too political! Leoni is better than this.
All the ageist Demo talk is of course nonsense, and it’s way too early to call this a failure (although I think it will be). The 14 million + of the premiere was actually respectable and if it stabilized at 12 million viewers, it’s be a solid show, the kind the networks used to produce in droves and now don’t know how to do regularly. That said, when a show starts losing its audience right away, it usually keeps doing it… But it’s way too early to call it. The fact we’re talking about it makes it sound like something… Read more »
This a welcome new show for the season…..do not cancel. Word is out there to urge
Folks to watch it. Excellent cast….and good writing. Please do not cancel. Believe
me people are really fed up with the poor shows that have no morals and lack
a story that really keeps them looking for the next episode. Kudos to Tea and Tim.
Thank you CBS.
Please let Madam Secretary stay and continue to grow. Fabulous cast!
This is the best new show on TV. How can you think of canceling something so good???
I couldn’t agree more
I think this show should be given a chance. The show is up against the Good Wife which I enjoy. There are so many cop shows on at the present time. Way too many as far as I am concerned. Bluebloods keeps getting renewed. I don’t think it is very good. Kind of boring. Tea Leoni ia a good actress.. Why don’t they move football to another station. I never get to see the compete show?
It’s not against The Good Wife… It’s on the same network. And The Good Wife is far from a hit. It’s barely solid and gets renewals out of its political connections at CBS. Blue Bloods keeps being renewed in great part because it’s the #1 show on Friday. They’d cancel everything else first! It also has the ratings that Madam Secretary now has; “solid if unspectacular” but in this dreadful era it’s enough to win the night for CBS (and it will probably do solidly in syndication too). Like I said, if Madam Secretary stays at 12 million viewers, CBS… Read more »
I love Madame Secretary and The Good Wife…please keep both shows!! What is hard is that Football can run late so when I tape them to watch later, I get only parts of each show. I’m sure this happens to others and may be a false indication of the number of viewers as I need to watch the show on Time Warner’s On Demand channel where full episodes can be viewed regardless of their original start time.
I was wondering why it didn’t record the last scene. I don’t know how it ended? Anyone know what happened and/or coming attractions for next week? Thanks for the heads up. I will modify settings on my dvr for future shows.
Keep it! My sis and law and I love the show! It is well written and has an amazing cast. Tea and Tim bust through the Bill/Hillary illusions to show what a successful partnership and marriage look like in politics!
Like the show and tea leoni……but if football keeps changing the time each week….kiss all the cbs shows from 8-10 cancelled…..I can’t believe you can’t download by program and not time….with all the technology it’s hard to believe…..
Hi Pat yep sure agree with you there!…And,also I keep noticing that an ever growing number of TV watchers seem to be tired of nothing but endless sports,sports and more sports! So give the sports freakos their own All Sports All the Time and let the
rest of watch over shows on the tube!
A very intense show, yet enough spot humor to actually keep it realistic enough to believe. Of course we know it is made up, however, the script is believable and much better than the “canned” reality shows that show how stupid people can be when they pretend to act real!
My husband and I really enjoy this new show. I don’t understand the low ratings – because we think it is one of the better new programs offered this year (we also like the Good Wife too)
Keep it – It takes me back to The West Wing and Tea Leoni is worth watching. It’s like a warm up for House of Cards –
So far, I enjoy the show. The low ratings surprise me. I try to DVR it but football screwed up the timing on the first 2 episodes. I he to go to On Demand. That my account for the low ratings. I don’t really see the Hillary comparison. The TV character seems to have some ethics.
KEEP IT!. not a politcial science major, but Tea Leoni is EXCELLANT! maybe the ratings wouldn’t be so bad, dramas like these on CBS weren’t pushed back due overrunning sporting evens. thank God for DVR.
Exactly!!! I stopped watching The Good Wife a couple years ago because of this.
Amen! Bravo Diane as like you this TV viewer is also not a sports junkie! And so,therefore allow me to repeat myself here please all these 24/7 sports fan fanatics most definitely need to have their own 24/7 all sports all the time channel so the rest of us can other stuff that we much prefer to watch instead of sports!
My wife & I, give it t an 8 on a scale of 10. Unfortunately, its
and Good Wife’s scheduled air times are at the mercy of CBS’ NFL coverage, which we don’t watch, but apparently is bread & butter to CBS’s Sunday night ratings.
The football over-runs are the #1-rated show on CBS’ Mediocreville Sundays, so yes, they want as much of it as humanly possible.
The lead-in effect also boosts 60 Minutes quite a bit.