The Bridge: New CBS Police Drama; Cancel or Keep It?

CBS recently unveiled a new show called The Bridge. Never heard of it? You’re not alone and you just know that doesn’t bode well for the TV show’s future.

The Bridge revolves around a tough and dedicated cop who’s voted to become the police union’s leader. Officer Frank Leo (Aaron Douglas) ends up fighting crime on the streets while also battling corruption on the force. The series features Douglas, Frank Cassini, Michael Murphy, Ona Grauer, Paul Popowich, and Theresa Joy.

The TV show debuted on Saturday night with two episodes. Per the overnights, the first episode attracted an invisible 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just 2.98 million viewers. It was easily beaten by repeats of Cops and America’s Funniest Home Videos.

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The second episode of The Bridge drew a 0.5 rating in the demo and increased to a still meager 3.51 million viewers. It was trounced by America’s Most Wanted but did beat a repeat of ABC’s struggling Scoundrels.

You know a series is in trouble when, after just a few episodes, it’s sent to a timeslot on little-watched Saturday nights. When a show debuts on Saturday nights during the summer, you can just tell the network has no faith in it and is just burning off the episodes.

The Bridge comes from Canada’s CTV, in a similar arrangement as Flashpoint. It’s much cheaper for CBS than the scripted programming that the network commissions itself. Still, these numbers are horrible. CTV has already ordered a second season but there’s essentially no incentive for CBS to pick it up with ratings like these.

CBS has 11 more episodes of The Bridge. As currently scheduled, they’ll run on Saturday nights through September. With ratings like these, that seems highly unlikely to happen.

What do you think? Had you even heard of it? If so, is The Bridge worth watching? Would you cancel or keep it?