‘Good Sam’: Will CBS Cancel the Show? Ratings Fell Well Below ‘Chicago P.D.’ Season 9
CBS’ new TV series, Good Sam, features Sophia Bush at the helm of the medical drama. The show follows Bush’s character, Sam Griffith, as she becomes the lead cardiothoracic surgeon after her father falls into a coma. But when her father wakes up, he wants his job back, putting them at odds. While the show has a ton of heart, it didn’t seem to do well with ratings for its premiere. Will CBS cancel the show? And how did the new series do compared to the return of NBC’s Chicago P.D. Season 9 in the same timeslot?
The ‘Good Sam’ cast features Jason Isaacs and Sophia Bush as a father-daughter doctor duo at odds
Sophia Bush of Chicago P.D. and One Tree Hill fame never thought she’d do network television again. But after reading the script for CBS’ Good Sam and getting to know the show creators, she couldn’t resist taking the role of Sam Griffith.
“I wasn’t really sure I would come back to network TV, because of the stuckness,” she told USA Today. “And then I read (Katie Wech’s) script. And then I sat down with (executive producers) Katie Wech, Jennie Snyder Urman, and Joanna Klein. And I was like, ‘I would follow these women anywhere, let’s go.’”
Jason Isaacs plays Dr. Rob Griffith, the lead cardiothoracic surgeon in the hospital. After he gets shot and falls into a coma for six months, Sam takes over for him — but he’s not happy about the change when he wakes up. Isaacs plays the perfect father figure to go toe-to-toe with Bush.
Will CBS cancel ‘Good Sam’? The ratings fell far below the return of ‘Chicago P.D.’ Season 9
While Sophia Bush and Jason Isaacs lead the fantastic Good Sam cast and carry the storyline well, the show didn’t take off immediately for CBS. Data from TV Series Finale reports the Good Sam premiere pulled in about 2.7 million viewers. According to One Chicago Center, this makes the show CBS’ lowest debut of the 2021-2022 season so far.
So, what does that mean for the show going forward? It’s too soon to tell whether CBS will cancel the show, but it’s possible if the series doesn’t pick up more viewers, it could face cancellation by the end of the season.
The CBS family comedy Broke was canceled after one season in 2020. But TV Series Finale reports the show brought in between 7 million and 3 million viewers per episode, on average. Carol’s Second Act was another CBS show that was canceled after one season. TV Series Finale reports the show hovered around 5 million viewers per episode. With these numbers in mind, Good Sam might be in trouble.
‘Chicago P.D.’ Season 9 ratings stood strong for its winter return in January 2022
Chicago P.D. Season 9 airs on NBC at the same time Good Sam airs on CBS. And it seems the NBC show had a much stronger return than Good Sam‘s start.
TV Series Finale reports Chicago P.D. Season 9 Episode 10 brought in about 6 million viewers when it premiered. If CBS hoped to pull some Chicago P.D. viewers away from the NBC series, it seems they were unable to do so. The Chicago P.D. viewers are staying strong with the cop show despite likely having some interest in the medical drama thanks to Sophia Bush as the lead. We’ll have to wait and see if Good Sam can pick up more viewers.
Good Sam airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on CBS. Chicago P.D. Season 9 airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on NBC.
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