Going into the fall season, CBS’ Vegas series was one of the new TV shows with the most buzz. Many people were expecting it to be one of the hits of the season. Has it measured up? Should it be cancelled or renewed for a second season?
Airing on Tuesday nights, Vegas takes place in the Las Vegas of the 1960s and revolves around Sheriff Ralph Lamb (Dennis Quaid), a former rancher, and his clashes with Vincent Savino (Michael Chiklis), a Chicago mobster who moved west to set up his operation. Others in the cast include Carrie-Anne Moss, Taylor Handley, Sarah Jones, and Jason O’Mara.
The show debuted back on September 25th to a 2.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 14.85 million total viewers. While the viewership was strong, CBS was likely expecting a much better demo number — especially considering the show’s high-profile talent, positive reviews, and the show having a strong lead-in like NCIS: Los Angeles.
In week two, the ratings dropped 20%, to a 2.0 rating with 12.11 million. In week four, they dropped another 20%, to a 1.6 rating with 10.8 million.
The numbers have remained fairly steady since then and the 15 episodes that have aired thus far have averaged a 1.7 demo rating with 10.9 million viewers.
While that demo might be enough for a show on NBC, it’s not likely good enough for CBS. Right now, Vegas is one of the network’s lowest-rated weekday series in the demographic which advertisers favor. Vegas has a lot of total viewers but so do many other CBS shows.
Last season, Unforgettable occupied the same timeslot and performed better than Vegas — averaging a 2.3 demo rating and 11.3 million viewers. It was cancelled.
The network ended up making a deal with Sony TV to bring Unforgettable back for a short season this summer and both sides likely made some financial concessions to make that happen. Word is that most of the supporting castmembers have been dropped. A deal like that is not likely to happen with Vegas.
Unless the ratings start to climb, it doesn’t look very likely that Vegas will be back for a second season.
On the positive side, the series will be back on March 19th and there are seven new episodes yet to come.
What do you think? Do you think CBS should cancel Vegas to make way for a new show? Or, should they renew Quaid and company for a second season? If you were running the network, would you change anything try to attract higher ratings?
This is a show that both my husband and I both enjoy. If you need to take a couple of shows off take Golden Boy and Elemtary. With Vegas, it’s not a reality show either, so that makes it a great show to watch. Having it follow NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles is great placement. I thing CBS needs to rethink some of it’s programming. Give the people what they want and not always about money. We both love the acting of Dennis Quaid and Katherine O’Connell. This is a great show, PLEASE RENEW IT.
IS CBS CRAZY? VEGAS IS FANTASTIC. SAME GOOD ACTORS AS NCIS AND
BLUE BLOODS . BRING THIS WINNER BACK AND PUT GOLDEN BOY ON HOLD.
CBS IS OUR PREFERRED STATION
PLEAS RETHINK YOUR DECISION.
If CBS does not show this …… they are really dum.
very, very dissapointed when I heard it was cancelled. Love the show, love cbs, am not thrilled with “elemantary” I find it boring and do not watch. BRING VEGAS BACK !!!!!!
Yeah they SHOULD bring Vegas BACK…It was a GOOD Show With 2 GREAT ACTORS . Dennis Quaid & Michael Chiklis. It ALSO had a GREAT Storyline as well
CBS—Vegas is a class show. Time to bring it back.
Give it another chance please. I promise to rally my friends.
Please bring back Vegas to CBS. Besides Person of Interest, that used to be one of our favorite shows. Had a great cast, story plot, fashions, cars, music and who could forget how the last show ended! We can’t believe CBS keeps on these mindless reality shows and vulgar sitcomes and cancels a great show like Vegas! That show had drama that kept you on the edge of your seat!
I’m not sure what the problem is, but if CBS keeps moving shows around, people just don’t know when to tune them in. Moving the Mentalist to Sunday nights is probably going to kill that show. Vegas should have been put in a prime spot to get the audience following. I love the show. Please bring it back.
Please keep “Vegas”, we enjoy that show very much.
We do not want VEGAS to be CANCELLED. Too many dump shows on TV and we get a good one and you want to cancel it. TV does not make any sense anymore.
very good show !
give it one more season older people will watch on Friday nights.
C.B.S’s rating system failed. Many Americans looked forward to the weekly airing of “Vegas”. Many felt this was one of the best new series produced in years.
Renew….Absolutely
Renew good show! take off the nasty shows like how I meet your mother broke girls. Then you will put on more stupid show that are supose to be funny but are vulgar bring back shows I can set and watch with my grandkids.
I agree with you. There are to many show that are to nasty and vulgar and should not be on the air. Also there are way to many reality shows too that is really not reality at all. They are way out in left field.Vegas is a good show and should be allowed to be aired.
My husband and I love Vegas. Cannot believe it is being cancelled. We grew up in the 60’s and found it a step back in time! Whey don’t they cancel some of the stupid sitcoms like 2 Broke Girls. Its vulgar and disgusting.
Vegas has a great cast. I agree, this is a big mistake to cancel this show.
We have looked forward to Vegas from week to week. It such a good TV show and it is terrible to see you are going to cancel it. What are you thinking? Guess we the folks watching TV have very little to say about what show will go and what show to keep. Some of the shows you are keeping we never watch…what a sham to take off a show that so many people enjoy. You are really making a mistake.