Cane Losing Viewers

Remember Cane, the new CBS drama which stirred a bit of a controversy ’round these parts a few weeks ago?
Well, it looks like the number of viewers have been dropping since week 1 according to Sun-Sentinel TV critic Tom Jicha, and he has some reasons why:

Cane lost another 600,000 viewers for its fourth airing Tuesday night. Next week, it will be at least 600,001. After four weeks of watching, partly out of a sense of duty because the show is set in Palm Beach and partly because I once had high hopes for it, I’ve given up.
I’ve attempted to analyze the weekly dropoffs–the three-week trend is 9.9 million to 9.1 to 8.5–but Tuesday I came to the conclusion that it’s not the little things, such as too much subtitling, that is hurting the show. It’s the big thing. Cane stinks.
The storylines are duller than an eight-hour shift chopping cane. The characters are almost without exception off-putting and cardboard. Jimmy Smits is giving the worst performance of his career. It’s as if he’s playing down to the rest of the cast, the way a good sports team sometimes looks as inept as its much weaker competition.
Don’t take this personally, Palm Beach. You’ve become so invisible that there are probably a lot of people who think the show is set in Miami. South Beach gets more attention.
As I’ve mentioned in other posts, a lot of failed shows are having their lifespans artifically extended by the threat of a Writers Guild strike as soon as Nov. 1. The thinking is it’s better to have a mediocre show that at least can boast it’s new than the avalanche of reruns that will start filling the airwaves within a few weeks of writers hitting a picket line. This could be the best thing Cane has going for it right now.
CBS issued its customary daily ratings recap and it went on for six paragraphs lauding the season high performances of NCIS and The Unit. Cane, which hit seasonal lows despite the sturdy lead-ins, was never mentioned.
You would hope that if the writers do go out, they will have really imaginative slogans on their picket signs. Then again, these are TV writers, so if there is a good idea or two, the others will just copy it.

7 thoughts on “<i>Cane</i> Losing Viewers”

  1. I never had the slightest interest in this show, nor do I now, but I’ve seen advertising for it. Jimmy Smits looks NOTHING like a Cuban, and I would never buy him as such. Rita Moreno? Please. The older guy who (I think) plays her husband? Don’t make me laugh. Talk about miscasting.

  2. Robert-
    I harbor a secret fantasy of writing a tv show about a Cuban family along the lines of the Cosby show. With lots of laughs and real-life drama as only Cubans can create.
    Oh, wait. That was ‘Que Pasa, USA?’
    Never mind. . . =D

  3. “Cane” did elicit that great comment about the 3 sizes of asses, though.
    I watched part of one episode. It didn’t grab me.

  4. I knew that “Cane” was a turkey of a show from the getgo. Here in NYC where I live there was a blitzkrieg of “Cane” advertisements on all public buses, in Subway stations and even in RiteAid stores where the first thing that greated you as you walked in was Jimmy Smits VERY UNCUBAN LOOKING FACE on a big poster. Obviously, CBS knew that the show was a stinker and they were trying to prop it up with hundreds of thousands of dollars of advertisements. Question is, why would they throw good money after bad?
    I say GOOD RIDDANCE to that piece of trash. Jimmy Smits and Rita Moreno are about as Cuban as Oprah Windfrey is Scandanavian. Why couldn’t Hollywood find Cuban actors to play the part of Cubans? Oh, wait, I know why! Because Cubans don’t look like what their preceived notion of what Cubans should look like is, i.e. a George Lopez type.

  5. Honestly, I don’t think Jimmy Smits’ or Rita Moreno’s physical dissimilarities to Cubans has anything to do with the downward trend in viewers.
    Let’s face it, there are only a few news shows every season that truly “make it”, and the rest go away after a season or two. Looks like Cane may join the also-rans.
    Marta – Que Pasa USA was one of the lightning in a bottle shows where everything fell into place at the right time. The Telemundo comedy series Los Beltran came somewhat close, but never really intended to be a totally Cuban-themed series anyway.

  6. I really wanted to like it but when my husband forgot to tivo it this week I was like, “Oh, well.” I still haven’t watched the second half of last week’s- I just couldn’t get through it.
    Sorry Nestor, I still love you, though.

  7. If anyone watches “How I Met Your Mother”, Allyson Hannigan was wearing a “Viva Cuba Libre” t-shirt a couple weeks ago, so there was at least a little Cuba on TV.

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