'Commander in Chief' Comes Back with a Whimper

April 17th, 2006 11:09 AM
Hollywood Reporter

says ABC's matriarchal presidential drama "Commander in Chief" has come back with less-than-impressive numbers.

"Commander in Chief" wasn‘t able to muster the troops in its return to primetime Thursday.

The ABC drama, which stars Geena Davis as the nation‘s first female president, averaged 8.2 million viewers and a 2.4 rating/7 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary ratings data from Nielsen Media Research.

In its new 10 p.m. slot, "Commander" was defeated handily by CBS‘s "Without a Trace" (18.6 million, 5.7/16). It had a couple million more viewers than a repeat of NBC‘s "ER" (6 million, 2.6/7) but the repeat did better in the demo.

Thursday night belonged to CBS, which averaged primetime delivery of 19.2 million viewers and a 6.1/18 in the demo. The night‘s top show was "CSI," which averaged 23.9 million viewers and a 7.5/21 in the demo. At 8 p.m., "Survivor" was the winner with 15 million viewers and a 5.1/17 in adults 18-49.

No one else was even close, with ABC averaging 7.2 million viewers and a 2.5/7, with "Commander" and a two-hour "American Inventor" (6.8 million, 2.5/8).