movieking

Did a search and didn't find anything, but if this has been posted, mods, please lock.

From canoe.ca

CBS axes 'The Will' after one airing

NEW YORK (AP) - CBS lost The Will after just one night.

This reality series, which logged a minuscule 4.2 million viewers on its premiere airing Saturday, has been axed by CBS, the network confirmed Wednesday. Despite heavy promotion, The Will ranked 79th place in viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it CBS's lowest-ranked show of the week. (The week's most-watched show, CBS's CSI, drew almost 29 million viewers.)

A rerun of CBS's Sunday crime drama Cold Case will plug the hole this Saturday, the network said.

A reality show whose 10 participants vied to be sole heir to the fortune of a 73-year-old rancher, The Will thus joins a handful of other one-shot blunders in TV history.

The most recent was South of Sunset, a CBS detective drama with former Eagles rocker Glenn Frey, which debuted Oct. 27, 1993, then was never seen again. With a 6.1 rating, that show attracted what was deemed the smallest audience ever for a series premiere on any major network.

For the sake of comparison, The Will got a 2.9 rating.

Groucho

The irony is that 4.2 million people is still a hell of a lot of people. That's more people than saw Groucho Reads His Laundry List.

Morf

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of reality TV fans suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

Joshua

LOL

HistoryProf

Is it just me, or is there an encouraging trend of these shows getting axed early more and more? Fox just did so with that obnoxious boss one too. We can only hope this is the beginning of the end....

movieking

One episode is pretty brutal though. Why broadcast it at all? If they are ready to kill it after one episode, I think that the decision was made before it was even aired, or it was a self fulfilling prophecy, where the networks think it is going to bomb, and then axe it after it airs, regardless of the rating (assuming it doesn't go through the roof or anything).

HistoryProf

they advertised the HELL out of the piece of shit though...so you know they were at least hoping it would get passable ratings....they tried to force it and it failed miserably.

chowderhead

I remember seeing a pop-up bubble promoting the Will during Tuesday's episode of TAR so the decision was pretty sudden. That being said. They put the Will on Saturday, probably the worst night of the week.
I am noticing a trend as well. With the who's my daddy show, they had filmed something like 6 episodes but Fox decided to condense it into one 1 and 1/2 hour program. Perhaps, focus groups didn't like it or they knew it would tank. Still, certain ones Fat obnoxious boss, Wickedly perfect get very good slots and still fail.

movieking

Did anyone actually watch it? If so, how was it?

DonnachaOne

I'm surprised that they didn't attempt to move it to another day first, just to see...

bigjim25

It was seen again, just not on CBS. VH1 had an Eagles weekend in 1994 and aired 4 other episodes. Thankfully I got them on tape.

UAIOE

The most promising trend in recent TV history, the death of reality shows.

Hopefully "American Idol" will fall pretty soon.

raven56706

But the girls on the WILL were hot as hell......

Rogue588

so...who won?

DodgingCars

The hatred of reality tv is baffling to me. There are some truly awful reality shows out there: The Swan, Who's Your Daddy, etc. But there are some very entertaining and well-made reality shows out there too: The Amazing Race, The Apprentice, and the mini-series The Long Way Round, for example.

Some reality tv is exploitive, some are just elaborate game shows (Amazing Race, Survivor, etc), some are more documentary (Extreme Make-over: Home Edition), some are dating shows, while others are are just entertaining (old Real World, for instance).

I can't figure out why people hate the entire "genre" of reality tv, especially when it is so varied.

chowderhead

in this case, I think the audience won.

I also agree with the post above mine.

Groucho

Well said, DodgingCars. It's like saying "I hope all Dramas go away."

Burnt Alive

Exactly. And you didn't even bring up the PBS "House" series, either.

shoppingbear

Huh, I taped this and haven't had a chance to watch it yet... guess I don't have to NOW...

Numanoid

I too hope this well mark a turning point pointing to the end of "reality" television.

To answer DodgingCars, I have enjoyed some reality (notice the lack of quotes) television over the years. But nowadays it has devolved into not much more than shows about beautiful, young, model/actor wannabes experiencing a "reality" that is anything but. It is all totally manipulated, the circumstances of the shows are completely contrived, the outcomes predetermined, and there is nothing real about it.

Alyoshka

Seriously, there is no need to attack the last 7 years of The Real World.

HistoryProf

DodgingCars

I agree that a lot of reality tv has become this, but its certainly not all. And to condemn all reality tv (not necessarily you) seems ridiculas. It's like saying that sitcoms suck and you wish they would disappear from tv because they're all about poor writing and lame one-liners. That totally ignore more innovative shows like Seinfeld, Arrested Development, and Malcolm in the Middle. Why not just call for the end of bad tv or use the simpler method -- don't watch it.

I just finished watching The Long Way Round a few weeks ago on Bravo and I thought it was awesome. This seasons Amazing Race has been a disappointment (fitting your description, sadly), but the previous years were great.

Also, I think we all know that the name "reality" was never meant to imply that they wouldn't be contrived -- just that they aren't scripted and performed (for the most part )

And I totally disagree that the outcomes are predetermined.

SuprVgeta

gooooood.... goooooood.

Numanoid

Just last week I was flipping around and caught an interview with the original Joe Millionaire or whatever he was called (some broke guy who all the girls thought was a millionaire) and he claimed that he really wanted to pick another girl as the winner, but the producers made him pick someone else. Not only was the reality not reality, the ending was probably determined by a focus group. Bah.