“I sympathize” with the fans “disappointed” by our cancelled concerts

CBS Entertainment Chairman Amy Reisenbach said she and other executives at America’s most-watched network will “be looking around” to decide which shows to cancel this spring.

“I’m a huge fan of television first and foremost, and I sympathize with all the fans who are disappointed with the end of these shows,” Reisenbach said Tuesday at the Banff World Media Festival (according to our sister site Variety ). “But at the end of the day, our job at CBS is to make these really tough decisions,” she added, echoing comments she made in May at CBS’ fall lineup reveal party.

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During one week in April, CBS pulled the plug on CSI: Las Vegas (after three seasons), So help me Todd (after two) and NCIS: Hawaii (after three hours). The network then announced a fall lineup that includes two new dramas — NCIS: Origins (aka the Young Gibbs prequel spin-off) and Kathy Bates Matlock — and ends every Sunday evening with reruns of drama series.

“We’re tossing and turning, we’re having sleepless nights and we’re having endless discussions” about cancellations and renewals, “but we’re looking at all the numbers,” Reisenbach said in Banff. “We’re looking at what our projections are for the future, we’re looking at where we see opportunities to potentially get even more success in the calendar.”

NCIS: Hawaii The past television season averaged 7.81 million total viewers (including Live+7), a 4% increase over Season 2’s audience and ranking 6th out of 14 CBS dramas, and among all returning dramas, it ranked 8th in total viewers.

CSI: Las Vegas (averaging 6.1 million) was up 7% from the previous year, though it drew the smallest audience of any CBS drama, while So help me Todd (with 6.2 million viewers) fell 3% from its first season, ranking 12th out of 14 CBS dramas.

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“It’s our responsibility to always keep the schedule up to date and keep the momentum going,” Reisenbach said last May. “Everything came back really strong (after the Hollywood strikes), but at the end of the day, we have to look at the consistency of the schedule. We have to look at the financials and the overall performance, and we have to make some tough decisions.”

Among CBS’s returning series, Blue blood The series is heading into the second half of its farewell season this fall, and Reisenbach said last month that there were no plans to renew the long-running family crime drama — despite cast members (Tom Selleck included) pushing for at least one longer farewell season. “We love this cast, we love their passion for the show,” she noted. “We’re going to end the show in December.”

A kind of Blue blood A branch of CBS, however, appears to be involved.

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