NBC Ending Its Chase Earlier Than Expected

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Dec. 6 2010 at 11:11 AM

Categories: From the RTF Dept.

Courtesy NBC Universal

Cole Hauser and Kelli Giddish on a West End rooftop in last week's episode of Chase

Back in October, NBC made the rather surprising announcement that it was picking up the locally shot Chase for an entire season -- 22 episodes, boom. It was surprising given that ratings for the Monday-night procedural weren't terribly good -- it was averaging around 6.5 million viewers early during its run, a pittance compared to, say, the almost 19 million NCIS garners every week. Still, said Angela Bromstad, president of primetime entertainment, "Chase has introduced an appealing new star to television audiences in Kelli Giddish, and we think it has potential to grow."

The network has since changed its mind: Friend of Unfair Park Howard Wen sends word that at the end of the day Friday, The Hollywood Reporter noted that NBC cut Chase's order from 22 to 18 episodes, following a further drop in eyeballs. Even worse, on January 12 it moves from 9 p.m. Mondays to its new time slot: 8 p.m. Wednesdays -- "where it will be introduced to the joy of competing against two-hour American Idol performance shows."

I asked Janis Burklund, head of the Dallas Film Commission, for comment. She responds to the news thusly:

"We were very happy to have Warner Bros. and Jerry Bruckheimer choose to do Chase here, and while we are disappointed they are shaving off four episodes, the producers have had great things to say about their hard-working crew, and we're glad they will continue to have jobs into early February. We'll continue to to everything we can to encourage Warner Bros., Bruckheimer, FOX and others to do more shows here in the near future."

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