CBS Evacuates 'Century City'

From:Reuter
Date: Mar 31,2004

CBS has pulled the plug on midseason drama "Century City" after four airings.



The series, revolving around a high-end Los Angeles law firm in the year 2030, had little ratings traction in the Tuesday 9 p.m. slot, where it went up against Fox's "American Idol." In its final, March 30 screening, it wan fourth for the hour with an average of 7.7 million viewers.


The ensemble cast included Viola Davis, Nestor Carbonell , Hector Elizondo and Eric Schaeffer. It was created by veteran "Law & Order" scribe Ed Zuckerman, who executive produced with Oscar-nominated "Quiz Show" writer Paul Attanasio and Attanasio's wife, Katie Jacobs.


CBS will fill the void from next week with "The Guardian," which had held down the Tuesday 9 p.m. slot until it was benched to make room for "Century City."

Don't let them cancel these shows!

From:The Detroit Free Press
Date:March 29, 2004
BY MIKE DUFFY

Pump up the emotional volume. It's time to vent.

Yep, it's me again. The Don Quixote of lost eye-candy causes, Captain Video, tilting at television windmills with a sharpened remote control clicker.

It's early spring. Cruel fate may await our favorite, albeit low-rated shows. Is the grim cancellation reaper coming to visit? Or will St. Gilligan of Hope Springs Eternal bestow the blessing of a fall season renewal?

Well, don't just sit there. Let's get ready to grumble.

It's time for Captain Video's Save These Shows 2004.

I select five shows deemed extremely worthy of being invited to the renewal boogaloo party as the networks ponder and prepare to announce their fall schedules in mid-May.

You may agree with my picks; you may not. That's cool.

But hold on, there's more: Network addresses, phone numbers and other feedback options so you can fire off calls, letters or e-mails to support your own favorite shows that may be lingering on some network's endangered entertainment species list.

What shows? Well, my own picks for this year's edition of our annual prime time rescue mission include "Whoopi," "Line of Fire," "Wonderfalls," "The Guardian" and "Angel." The supernatural latter is a real challenge because WB has already announced the show's cancellation and driven a stake through ol' Angel's heart. Horrors!

Of course, that hasn't stopped thousands and thousands of impassioned "Angel" fans from launching a campaign to get another network to revive the series. You can visit www.savingangel.org for crusade details.

Do television viewers campaign in vain to save shows?

Hate to rain pessimism on my own parade, but the answer is usually yes.

"You can count on one hand, even if you've lost a couple fingers, the number of times this sort of thing has had any impact," says Robert Thompson, head of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television. "People going into these campaigns, sad to say, are tilting at some very big windmills."

The teensy handful of shows that have been spared because of a viewer protest? "Cagney & Lacey" was the most notable.

CBS canceled the female cop show, starring Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless, after one season of low ratings in 1982-83. But when outraged fans buried the Eye network in calls and letters, stirring up controversy, the "Cagney & Lacey" ratings shot upward during summer reruns.

The sudden ratings buzz -- plus an Emmy Award for the series -- helped convince CBS to rescind the cancellation and bring the show back in early 1984 to enjoy five more seasons as a popular, critically acclaimed hit.

Three years later, CBS also had second thoughts about the cancellation of "Designing Women." An intense fan campaign led by former Michigan resident Dorothy Swanson and her organization, Viewers for Quality Television, helped change CBS's mind. The Delta Burke sitcom soon became a major hit, and "Designing Women" lasted six more years.

Today the Internet has made it ridiculously easy for TV fans to communicate with one another. And whether it's "Freaks and Geeks" or "Once and Again" or "Angel," online crusades to save beloved, beleaguered shows have become an annual ritual.

"I think people do this for the same reasons they go to funeral receptions or attend good-bye parties when friends move away," says Thompson. "I think TV fans find a lot of comfort in these campaigns."

At the very least, it affords fans a rich, therapeutic opportunity to rant and rave, to share their feelings and talk back to the networks.

Now excuse me while I happily tilt at a few windmills. Hey, TV networks, save these shows:

"The Guardian"(CBS, on hiatus. Returns at 9 p.m. Tuesdays on April 27): A traditional CBS drama about a young Pittsburgh lawyer. Ho hum. Except that Simon Baker's fascinating, layered portrait of a tortured soul, the frequently anguished, misbehaving Nick Fallin, is a quasi-subversive triumph on a play-it-safe network like CBS. Kill "Century City" and renew "The Guardian."

OK, TV Nation, it's your turn. Start your venting engines and rattle the network cage of your choice.

Readers' Remote -- Keep or Cancel?

From:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Date:March 28, 2004
By Rob Owen

When it comes to shows that are "on the bubble" for renewal, this is an unusual year. Most series that would get major fan backing -- The WB's "Angel," ABC's "The Practice," NBC's "Ed" -- already have been pink-slipped, given early cancellation notices so producers can wrap up story lines in a satisfactory manner.


Other shows have been canceled without hope for renewal (think: Fox's "A Minute with Stan Hooper," NBC's "Coupling," ABC's "Karen Sisco").

But there are a few series whose precarious status could be helped by support from fans, which makes our annual Keep or Cancel? poll more than an exercise in futility.

CBS
7800 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036

Having a banner year, pretty much all of CBS's shows will be back. The biggest question marks surround "The Guardian," whose fate probably won't be known until the network announces its fall schedule in May.

Primetime Tuesday Ratings: CBS' Century City Disappoints

From:MediaWeek.com
Date:March 17 2004

Yesterday's Losers:
Whoopi (NBC), Happy Family (NBC), Century City (CBS), High School Reunion (WB)

In series premiere news, CBS might want to rethink the current status of shelved drama The Guardian considering the debut of Century City dipped to a 6.9/10 in the overnights (with just 8.93 million viewers) in its former 9 p.m. time period.

Comparatively, Century City held only 74 percent of its Navy NCIS lead-in (#2: 9.3/14), while declining in the vicinity of 20 percent from typical overnight levels for The Guardian.

Drama for ''Guardian'' -Series'' fate is in balance

From:NY Daily
Date:March 16, 2004
By RICHARD HUFF


It's going to be a tough several weeks for fans of "The Guardian."
The series is being shelved by CBS to make room for the new legal drama "Century City."

Making matters worse: For the first time in its three-season history, the cast, crew and producers do not know whether they'll be back next season.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," said executive producer David Hollander. "I believe that our show creatively has plenty of juice left in it, and I believe there's an audience for it."

CBS executives, so far, aren't so sure.

CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves said recently the show is on the bubble for renewal, not the kind of confidence-building news that sends folks on the show buying bigger homes.

"The Guardian" is built around Simon Baker, who plays a lawyer forced into community service after a drug bust. Baker, an Australian hunk, has been a strong draw, and the series has gotten generally favorable reviews.

The bad news is, there's little buzz about the show. It has averaged 10.5 million viewers this season to rank No. 43 overall. Last season the show averaged 11.8 million and finished No. 31.

"We're doing very well. We're just not doing great in terms of numbers," said executive producer Mark Johnson. "But, CBS has a lot of shows doing really well."

Lately, CBS has been riding high on forensic crime series like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigations," "CSI: Miami" and "Without a Trace" and the reality hit "Survivor."

If history is any indication of the future, the chances of a three-year-old show picking up ratings steam or buzz at this point are limited. Typically, viewers make decisions early, and rarely go back after they've decided.

Moreover, CBS executives, like their counterparts everywhere in Hollywood, are now weighing program choices for next season. It's a time for gambling on their part: Renew a show with a smaller, albeit consistent, audience or try something else.

And the usual avenue of getting a big-name celebrity to appear in a stunt-casting role to draw attention to the show is not an option.

"You need to have a certain zeitgeist going," Hollander said of guest stars. "When you're on CBS, Tuesday night at 9, it's a tricky thing to accomplish."

For now, everyone connected to the show will continue working - two episodes in the season remain to be shot - and wait for the call from the CBS executives, who hold the show's fate in their hands.

Hollander isn't ready to say its over, but he's writing an episode that could serve as a series farewell.

"I'm not even considering it," Johnson said of the end. "I refuse to be that apocalyptic to the show. Too much more needs to be said. I do believe we are a hit show. We're not exactly standing with our hat in our hands."

CBS gives ho-hum show a test run on Tuesdays

From:Detroit Free Press
Date:March 16, 2004
BY MIKE DUFFY

There oughta be a law against surrounding a fairly provocative premise in such blandly conventional CBS storytelling.

Welcome to "Century City," a futuristic legal drama that premieres for a spring season test run at 9 tonight on CBS. The show -- which features an OK cast, a few interesting ideas and the slickly forgettable razzle dazzle of too many special effects -- is set in Los Angeles 2030.

The familiar, comfortably avuncular Hector Elizondo ("Chicago Hope") heads the ensemble of regulars as wise Marty Constable, senior partner in the firm of Crane, Constable, McNeil and Montero. Viola Davis ("Antwone Fisher") portrays Hannah Crane, the firm's designated strong, assertive senior female. And "Horatio Hornblower" star Ioan Gruffudd is idealistic young legal dreamboat Lukas Gold.

Thanks to a nifty guest-starring performance by David Paymer ("Line of Fire"), "Century City" gets off to a moderately strong start with the anguished tale of a 7-year-old boy in desperate need of a liver transplant. The futuristic medical ethics and legal hook? The boy's father (Paymer) is fighting for the right to use the child's genetic embryo clone to develop a baby that could then donate a portion of its liver to save the son.

"Century City" is the jurisprudential brainchild of executive producer and Harvard Law grad Paul Attanasio. Besides creating "Homicide: Life on the Street," Attanasio wrote the screenplays for the feature films "Quiz Show" and "Donnie Brasco." Impressive.

But "Century City" -- which focuses on the 21st Century collision of science and law -- is at best a mixed bag of formula legal drama tricks during its first two episodes. Despite the futuristic setting, which includes slightly hokey holograms, the series possesses the cozily cliched traditional feel of CBS-style dramas from "Judging Amy" to "The District" to "JAG." Yawn.

The show's biggest problem may be its lack of any single character who is even remotely as complex and interesting as Simon Baker's charismatic tortured soul, Nick Fallin, on "The Guardian." Fallin is one of the few truly complicated, original lead characters on mainstream network television.

Though "The Guardian" is set to return April 27, its own somewhat iffy future may hinge on how well "Century City" does in the ratings over the next six weeks while sub-letting Nick Fallin's 9 o'clock Tuesday home.

Me, I'd rather stick with Nick. But now it's time for the jury sitting at home to vote on "Century City."

CBS Suspends 'The Guardian'

From:United Press International.
Date:March 16 2004

CBS is shelving "The Guardian" to make room for its new legal drama "Century City," the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.

It is unclear whether the 3-year-old series will be back next season.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," Executive Producer David Hollander told the newspaper. "I believe that our show creatively has plenty of juice left in it and I believe there's an audience for it."

CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves, however, recently described the show as "on the bubble" for renewal.

The series is built around Australian actor Simon Baker, who plays a lawyer forced into community service after a drug bust.

Baker has been a strong draw and the series has gotten generally favorable reviews, however, the show has not been a ratings bonanza for CBS, The News noted.

Mid-season players get shot at lineup

From:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Date:March 14, 2004
By Rob Owen


There's been a fair amount of outrage from fans of "The Guardian" over CBS's decision to bench the Pittsburgh-set series for six weeks in favor of "Century City," a midseason tryout.

In fairness to CBS, those six weeks would have been "Guardian" reruns anyway and ratings for reruns of a show as serialized as "The Guardian" always take it on the chin. Therefore, bringing in a new series for a short time makes sense.

(CBS chairman Leslie Moonves' use of the term "on the bubble" to describe "The Guardian's" chances of renewal for next season is highly questionable though considering that in at least two of the four sweeps weeks last month, "The Guardian" won its time period in overnight ratings.)

Contrary to appearances, this is not another column about "The Guardian" but a look at two new CBS series.


'Century City'


Set in the year 2030, this futuristic legal drama takes issues in the news today and gives them a "Jetsons" spin. Tuesday's premiere was not made available for review, but an episode airing Saturday at 10 p.m. comes across as overly preachy one minute, too cute the next.

Lawyer Hannah Crane (Viola Davis) defends a doctor (guest star Richard Thomas, "The Waltons") being sued for failing to tell expectant parents that their child has a 95 percent chance of being gay because the fetus tested positive for a "gay gene." Turns out it wasn't an oversight on the doctor's part but a deliberate attempt to prevent the decimation of the gay population, which technology and choosing a child's genetic traits in advance has made possible.

This story is an example of the interesting, forward-thinking spin "Century City" can give to current social issues. It's the episode's more dramatic story line, which is at times touching, at times didactic.

For comedy, Lukas Gold (Ioan Gruffudd, "Horatio Hornblower") and genetically re-engineered lawyer Lee May Bristol (Kristin Lehman) defend a man (Phillip Rhys) charged with stealing items from his ex-girlfriend. He says it was his right because she dumped him but programmed technologically advanced items in her home with his personality. For instance, she programmed the micro-fibers in her sweater to retain his scent. This leads to her, on the witness stand, demanding, "Give me back my nano-pants!" Whatever those are.

Character-wise, Gold and Bristol have the potential for a budding romance. Darwin McNeil (Eric Schaeffer) is this show's attempt at an Arnie Becker-type character ("L.A. Law"). Netsor Carbonell ("The Tick") plays a former congressman and new partner in the firm where Marty Constable (Hector Elizondo) is the voice of sage wisdom.

This episode of "Century City" makes some attempts at developing the show's regular characters, but since it's not the pilot, there's not a good sense of who most of them are. Presumably the pilot, airing Tuesday, will do a better job of that.

The concept for "Century City" is a solid one, but I worry about its execution and how long the writers can sustain stories that don't stretch credulity (like the "nano-pants"). As for the futuristic elements, they're mostly done on the cheap. No flying cars, just turned up collars on men's suits and meetings attended by holograms.

Aussie man-from average blokes to Simon Baker are smartening up their act

From:Sunday Age
Date:March 7,2004

He's got style.

Aussie man-from average blokes to Simon Baker are smartening up their act.


Dressed for the Part: The Guardian star Simon Baker has traded boardies for
Gucci

Simon Baker feels more at home in thongs and boardies than designer get-up.
And like many Australian men, he'd rather throw on a wetsuit and go surfing
than slip into a tuxedo and hit the Hollywood circuit.

But for his role as lawyer Nick Fallin in television's The Guardian
(returning to Network Ten later this year), Baker has to look the part. And,
in the process, the 34-year-old Tasmanain-born actor has learnt a thing or
two about fashion. Now, he asks his wardrobe team to put his character in
one-button, tuxedo-style Gucci suits. And while he used to wear a lot of
black-suit black-shirt combinations on the show, he's now into lighter
shirts.

It's a look he's carried over to his many red-carpet appearances, which have
in turn translated into spots on Best Dressed lists in the US (and a
guernsey in People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People of the year).

"I think style should be unselfconscious," he told InStyle Magazine. "I
pretty much go for things that are simple, practical. I'm not interested in
seeing anyone being worn by their clothes."

'Guardian' still endangered

From:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Date:March 04, 2004
By Rob Owen

CBS's "The Guardian" won its time slot in the overnight household ratings twice last month, so I thought maybe CBS chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves would be ready to revise his January comments that the Pittsburgh-set show is "on the bubble" for renewal for next season. I was wrong.

"The status is really the same," Moonves said in a teleconference Tuesday. "It's still doing decently. Three years ago there would have been no question about 'The Guardian' being on our schedule, [since it's] winning in viewers and households. But we're paying more attention to the 25-54 [demographic] and, dirty word, even the 18-49 [demographic]."

"The Guardian" ranked fourth in the 18-49 demo this week.

My gut says the show will be back, but with "CSI: New York" in development, I could easily see "The Guardian" shunted to low-rated Saturday night.

future isn''t looking bright for "Century City"

From: Variety

The future isn't looking especially bright for CBS drama "Century
City," which bowed weakly Tuesday opposite Fox's "American Idol"
juggernaut.

According to Nielsen nationals, the futuristic legal series averaged
a 2.1 rating/6 share in adults 18-49 -- the lowest premiere result
for an Eye drama in at least five years -- and 8.86 million viewers
overall. It ranked fourth or fifth for its 9 o'clock hour in key
demographics, including 25-54 (3.1/7), and second in total viewers.

"City" retained just 68% of its solid 18-49 lead-in from "Navy NCIS"
(3.1/8, 13.29 million viewers overall) in an hour where regular slot
occupant "The Guardian" had averaged 90%.

Of course, "The Guardian" didn't have to contend regularly
with "American Idol," which was extended to two hours Tuesday. But
in a similar situation a year ago, "The Guardian" held on to 90% of
its firstrun "JAG" lead-in.

"Century City," which gets a special post-college basketball airing
Saturday at 10, is scheduled to air on Tuesdays until "The Guardian"
returns in a month.

Younger-thinking CBS as sweeps ends

From:Media Life Magazine
Date:Mar 03,2004
By Toni Fitzgerald

Why not, being so close in 25-54s and 18-49s?

Two years ago a show like "The Guardian," a strong performer among total viewers and households but a dud among adults 18-49, would have been guaranteed renewal at CBS.
But in the new world of CBS, where the network now competes neck-and-neck in sweeps with NBC and Fox for 18-49 and 25-54 viewers, "The Guardian" looks like a goner.

It's a strategy shift that will become more and more evident when CBS announces its schedule this May. Suddenly, CBS sees audience potential among 18-49s, based on this strong February and last year's strong November sweeps performance.

That will mean more edgy shows like "CSI" and fewer "Judging Amys."

Discounting Olympic years of 1994 and 1998, CBS will boast its closest competitive position to first in 18-49s since the 1993 February sweeps, trailing leader NBC 4.8 average by .6 through Monday night.

Among 25-54s the race is even tighter, with CBS .2 behind NBC 5.5, also the closest it has been to first in that demo since February 1993.

How that were winning viewers and households by a large margin, we can pay more attention to our target demographic of 25-54s and that dirty word, 18-49s,?said CBS head Les Moonves during a conference call with reporters yesterday. here are a lot of things we need to look at to explore.?br> Moonves said that CBS expects to finish first among total viewers and households and second in 18-49s and 25-54s.

CBS success in those demos is mainly because it is the only network not losing ground there. Its 18-49 rating of 4.2 is even to last year, when it placed third, while NBC is down 2 percent and ABC is down 8 percent.

Last year No. 1, Fox, is down 29 percent, though Fox does predict that it will increase its current 4.0 sweeps average to 4.2 Wednesday, the final night of sweeps, thanks to merican Idol.?br> Among 25-54s, CBS is the only network besides UPN that has risen, up 2 percent, to a 5.3. Leader NBC is down 2 percent, ABC is down 7 percent and Fox is down 26 percent.

Most of Moonves?comments yesterday actually dealt not with sweeps but with verybody Loves Raymond,?the network top-rated comedy that is currently in negotiations for a ninth season.

Star Ray Romano has said he like to leave after this year, and Moonves said there would be an announcement in the next three weeks about the show status. He confirmed that he and producer Phil Rosenthal have discussed a limited return similar to this year riends?deal on NBC, where the cast would shoot fewer than the traditional 24 episodes. A Brad Garrett spinoff is also on the table.

He also said that SI: New York?will be spun off through a backdoor pilot on SI: Miami.?He would not commit to a time slot for the show, though, joking that NBC Jeff Zucker could only dream that the rumored 10 p.m. Friday slot was true.

Moonves said the urvivor: All-Stars?season finale will air Sunday, May 9, at 8 p.m. He confirmed that he Amazing Race?will return this summer.

In her chat yesterday, Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman emphasized the network new strategy of introducing programming in the summer, saying that several new series will debut in June.

She said Fox expects to finish second among 18-49s this season to NBC, though it is closer now than it was last year at this time to the network for the season.

She also said that the endangered rrested Development?will get a boost Wednesday, March 17, in the post-merican Idol?slot. The critically acclaimed freshman show has struggled in its usual Sunday 9:30 p.m. slot.

When asked about the future of oston Public,?Berman wouldn commit either way, though there are still three unaired episodes of the on-hiatus show and series star Chi McBride just signed on to a new pilot.

ABC Susan Lyne was similarly noncommittal on ine of Fire,?the YPD Blue?replacement that disappointed in December and January and still has four unaired episodes left.

ABC said it has five or six new shows, most of them reality, ready to launch in the next five months, including the Mark Cuban reality show set for this summer, an import of the British show ife Swap?and the comedy ig House.?br> NBC, meanwhile, emphasized the success of its comedies during the February sweeps. The network has been criticized for failure to create a strong riends?successor as the 10th-year show gets ready to exit, but Zucker downplayed that problem while praising new hit reality show he Apprentice.?br> "I'm not trying to diminish the loss of 'Friends,"' Zucker said. "But the fact is we're picking up so many more hours of almost equally rated new programming that it's not the kind of hole that we would have been facing."

Zucker confirmed that a fourth "Law & Order" will air next season, though he did not say when.