Same Name: CBS Missing Reality Show; Already Cancelled?

If you were watching CBS earlier this summer, you couldn’t help but see loads of commercials for their new reality series called Same Name. After all of that promotion, what happened? Has the TV series already been cancelled?

Same Name follows celebrities and regular people who happen to share the same name. The two very different individuals switch places for a week and live with each other’s families, work alongside co-workers, and see how it feels to live the other’s life.

The reality series debuted on July 24th, paired with the Sunday return of Big Brother. The episode garnered a poor 1.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 5.36 million viewers, losing 40% of its Big Brother lead-in audience. Same Name was second for its timeslot, beaten by reruns of Family Guy and American Dad on FOX.

Episode two fell 13% in the demographic and 21% in total viewership. Week three’s installment bumped up to a series high with a 1.6 rating in the demo but just five million viewers. The fourth episode fell back down to a 1.5 rating. Same Name continued to lose a large percentage of the Big Brother lead-in audience, as much as 1.5 demo points and 54%. Often airing opposite other networks’ reruns, viewers were making a conscious effort to turn Same Name off.

CBS supposedly has six episodes of Same Name but the final two celebrity names hadn’t been promoted or announced when the show was pulled from the schedule just a few days before episode five was to air. The network replaced the reality show with reruns of The Good Wife.

While The Good Wife reruns haven’t been performing as well as original Same Name installments, the network no doubt wants to get viewers used to the idea of seeing Julianna Margulies and company on Sundays. New episodes of the critically-acclaimed but low-rated series will start airing at 9pm on Sunday nights beginning September 25th.

CBS may or may not have two episodes of Same Name left on the shelf. If they do, they could burn them off at some point in the future. Either way, it seems unlikely that the network will order a second season. It’s easily the lowest-rated reality show on the network and there’s simply no good reason not to cancel it.

But, what do you think? Is Same Name worth watching? Do you think it deserves a second season or should it just be cancelled?