Question: How come CBS is canceling NCIS: New Orleans? I really like that show. If they wanted to cancel one of those NCIS shows it should have been NCIS: Los Angeles. That show has gone downhill since Hetty is only on it occasionally. The best part is LL Cool J. —Sandra
Matt Roush: As you can imagine, the shockwaves from CBS turning the lights off of any of its NCIS shows are intense. (Same thing happened when CBS began winnowing its schedule of CSI shows back when that was the dominant crime-drama franchise.) There’s no way to address a cancellation that will satisfy a show’s fans, and adding to the confusion this time is the fact that New Orleans is the youngest (seven seasons) within the franchise — the mothership is in its 18th year and Los Angeles its 12th. While it may seem premature to NOLA‘s fans, this is pretty much in keeping with CBS’s history of refreshing its schedule and retiring many of its procedurals, even those with solid ratings, after roughly seven seasons (i.e., Cold Case, Elementary, Without a Trace), a point at which a show can become much more expensive to produce. NOLA was never quite as self-sustaining ratings-wise as its predecessors, and I’ve read that it hasn’t been as lucrative in the syndication market, which along with the high costs of location filming could be other contributing factors.
To submit questions to TV Critic Matt Roush, go to: tvinsider.com
