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One month into the TV season, and the most watched new drama is already in trouble. On Oct. 7, ABC replaced Commander in Chiefcreator-executive producer Rod Lurie with TV veteran and NYPD Bluecreator Steven Bochco. Sources close to the show say production delays were a big factor; Lurie, who was directing episodes in addition to writing them, had just wrapped his sixth episode as October began (most first-year dramas have six episodes in the can by launch time). And networks feared a Moonlighting scenario, where the creator can't even fulfill the 22-episode requirement for a season. Translation: more reruns, fewer original shows, dwindling viewers.

Lurie — a film veteran who created the short-lived 2003 ABC drama Line of Fire — had a premonition about both directing and writing the series. ''I don't feel it's a burden,'' he told EW last summer, ''though now you got me thinking. If it all falls apart, will it become the Rod Lurie fiasco?''


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Posted Oct 14, 2005 | Published in issue #846 Oct 21, 2005 | Order Article Reprints