You Blew It, ABC

An open letter to the powers-that-be at ABC

You blew it.

Big time.

You took the best new show of the season, Commander in Chief, and killed it. Destroyed it. Annihilated it.

Back in September and October, you had it all with Commander: a solid, well-written, well-directed, well-acted drama… that also happened to be winning its time slot (which in itself was no small feat for a Tuesday-at-9 show on ABC). But you couldn’t leave well-enough alone, now could you?

It seems that you were upset that scripts and new episodes were being delivered late by Commander creator/producer Rod Lurie. So, what do you do? You dump him as showrunner. Gone. Outta here. See ya. Except that Rod Lurie was the guy who gave you... your biggest new hit of the season. Except that Rod Lurie happened to be the guy who gave Commander its vision. Its voice. Its distinction. Rod Lurie was Commander in Chief.

Okay… Lurie’s out – strike one.

You didn’t waste any time going for strike two. For the big strike number two, you brought in Steven Bochco to replace Rod Lurie as showrunner. Now don’t get me wrong – Bochco is a talented guy and a top-shelf producer. The problem is that Bochco shows are very different shows from the kind of show that is Commander in Chief. With this in mind, there appeared to be two options: Bochco could attempt to fit the mold for Commander that had already been established by Lurie, or Bochco could attempt to “Bochco-ize” Commander.

I'll give you one guess as to what happened.

Bochco took a strong show… a personal show… and turned it into a “Bochco show.” Each episode now featured a “crisis of the week.” The unique role of the “first gentleman” was scuttled in favor of moving the President’s husband into a policy/advisory role. We were even “treated” (quotes intentional) to the addition of a Bochco favorite (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) to the cast (in a very unnecessary role as a hot-shot political-campaign advisor). And in no time it all it became apparent that Commander wasn't meant to be a "Bochco show." Virtually overnight the most-watchable new show of the Fall season became very unwatchable. Strike two!

Of course, this television-is-a-baseball-game metaphor would not be complete without a strike three; there just has to be a strike three. And oh boy, is there a strike three. You see, what you do if you're ABC is you take your biggest new hit of the season, and put it on hiatus for several weeks in a row (thereby destroying the show’s momentum and allowing audiences to completely forget about it). And then… when you do bring it back, you change its time slot, from the one in which it worked so well (Tuesdays at 9:00), to a slot affectionately known in the industry as one of television’s “death slots” (Thursdays at 10:00, opposite prime-time powerhouses ER and Without a Trace). Smart stuff, eh? Steeeee-rike three!

Commander in Chief returned to the ABC schedule last night (in the aforementioned death slot) for the first time since January. And for this go-round, Bochco's out and a new showrunner (third one this season, for those of you at home keeping score!) is in. The new showrunner (Dee Johnson, who had originally worked under Lurie) is valiantly trying to right the wrongs of Mr. Bochco. But sadly, it looks as if it may be too late. Last night's Commander was a mere shell of its former self.

That's right, ABC - you blew it.