CBS has decided to cancel Shark after two seasons on the air. What killed the series?
Shark debuted on September 21, 2006 and stars James Woods as Sebastian “Shark” Stark, an arrogant and cutthroat prosecutor. The TV show did pretty well in its first season on CBS. It ranked 24th for the season with an average of 13.7 million viewers. The one downside was that the show’s viewers tended to skew older. But, in a season littered with prematurely cancelled drama series (Smith, 3 lbs., The Nine, etc.), the show’s ranking and survival was an impressive achievement. The series was renewed for a second season.
Season two kicked off on Sunday, September 23, 2007. In that 10pm timeslot, Shark had to compete against ABC’s popular Brothers & Sisters and consistently lost in total viewers and the all-important 18-49 demographic.
Like most shows, Shark’s production schedule was interrupted by the writers strike. When the strike was over, production resumed and four more episodes were created. After a long absence, new episodes began airing in late April. In the show’s new Tuesday night timeslot, it was easily beaten by ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and FOX’s Hell’s Kitchen in both total and 18-49 viewers.
The show’s chances for a third year were still up in the air until just recently. Ultimately, the combination of Shark’s inability to attract younger viewers, the writers strike, and CBS’ excitement over its new dramas is likely what led the network to cancel the series.
Woods tells the LA Times that the cast and crew were “very saddened” by the news but were trying to stay positive. He continues, “We’re a little baffled by the decision but we’re very supportive… None of us can figure out quite why. But we have no bad feelings. This show did an enormous amount for me personally. We all won doing the show.”
>The current season, cut short by the writers strike, is made up of only 16 episodes. Shark’s series finale is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th. It’s unlikely that the episode will offer any kind of closure for the series. Stay tuned! 
Wow, am I late on the learning curve about Shark. I had the last episode on TiVo and just watched it yesterday. As someone who worked in broadcasting for many years, it’s ALWAYS about the ratings. CBS doesn’t make the rules about younger viewers. Advertisers pay more for them. Shows like Shark are expensive. What rubs me is the way CBS shuffled it around, making its cancellation a self-fulfilling prophecy. The TV Exec. business is not at the top of the list of upstanding jobs. The show was well-cast and well-written (except maybe for that last episode – way over… Read more »
I am 14 and I really enjoyed and understood the whole show. I will not lose hope, this show means a lot to me.
I am 13 and i enjoyed it.
My husband and I were very disappointed to see that Shark has been cancelled. We checked on it earlier in the year and CBS said on the internte that it would be returning shortly. This was a while after the writers strike. We thought the writers were behind. Now it is October and we said “Where is Shark”? They haven’t brought it back. So I found this site and learned that it was cancelled. We are in are early 60’s and network TV should pay more attention to us. We are the generation that is retiring with the money. If… Read more »
best court tv show since law & order, james woods was at his very best.
i think it’s a shame when producers constantly seek out the younger viewer with
little regard for more mature viewers. when did we become so obsolete? with all the silly crap and over rated reality shows what’s left for a mature woman of 50 to watch after 9pm. than God cbs left me with shows like ncis,criminal minds and (all 3 ) csi.
i can only hope shark returns in a better time slot
Will miss this very entertaining show. I”m in the older set, but I found each show worth watching.
Will miss this very entertaining show. I”m in the older set, but I found each show worth watching. James Woods is a favorite actor of mine. The shows were always
very suspenseful.
I am very sad that Shark has been taken off the schedule. I have been waiting to hear about the season premier and finally did a search, through my search I came upon this site saying it was cancelled. What a drag! I thought this was definitely one of the best shows on air. This beats the depressing Criminal Minds by far and they left that on, unbelieveable. When they put it against Dancing with the Stars they were signing its death warrant. Why in the world did they pick this show to air against a hit like that? It… Read more »
An absolute joke. I am 18 from ireland and was disgusted to see the show missing from the saturday night schedule…very sad day for me to find this out…:(
saturdays wont be the same for me….
I’m 44 and my wife is 27 and we loved the show. Woods was at his absolute best. When it started it was in a great time-slot with little or no competition and had it been left there it may have survived. We anticipated the show every week but lost track of it as it moved to different days. Its a shame CBS decided to put a new show up against long standing well established shows. This only ensured its failure. My wife and I hope that Woods will eventually get cast in another similar role in the near future.
I have to say that I had forgotten about Shark until I read it was canceled, of course I said “oh yeah” but I did watch it and it was a good show.
CBS really does neet to get their act together, James Woods was intense, and i am not a fan of his , he kind of scared me growing up as a child waching him on tv. . He played every show as intense as if he was fil\ming a motion picture. the show it self was great . How could they take it off the air.
I absolutely adored Shark. They put some shows on this season that are ridiculous. Bring it back on the air, Please. CBS really needs to get their act together and know which shows are great and ones that are not.
What a bad deal……we are under 50 an wouldn’t think of missing an episode. I am surprised at the short mined thinking of the network execs on this one……..
It’s really sad that Shark got cancelled because of the lack of “18-49” year olds watching it. Problem is, these kids are too busy with the next episode of Jackass, and Kenny vs Spenny to catch the important messages in Shark.
It’s thier loss. They can’t be bothered to put the bong down long enough to understand real life. Instead “Brothers and Sisters” gets prolonged.
This show should have stayed in the previous time slot, and catered to the refined adults, as opposed to brain-dead morons currently taking up the “18-49” year old demograghic.