Cold Case, Without a Trace facing cancellation

The CBS network makes its bread and butter off crime procedurals like CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Criminal Minds, NCIS and Numb3rs. This season the network has added two more: The Mentalist and Eleventh Hour.

Variety is reporting that LL Cool J will star in a spin-off of NCIS based in LA.

However, two of the network’s stable of crime shows are facing cancellation, according to Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly.

CBS has alerted execs at Without a Trace and Cold Case that the long-running procedurals are prime candidates for cancellation come May. “They no longer have the type of ratings that justify the massive overhead,” points out an Eye source, who adds that the Trace and Case bean counters are looking for ways to trim costs and avoid getting the ax.

[From Entertainment Weekly, print edition, March 20, 2009 issue]

Ausiello cites multiple sources claiming producers are asking cast members to take pay cuts or forfeit annual raises.

Without a Trace stars Anthony LaPaglia, Poppy Montgomery and Eric Close as members of a New-York based FBI unit dedicated to finding missing persons.

Cold Case features Kathryn Morris and Danny Pino as part of a cold case unit based in Philadelphia.

Even if the actors do accept lower salaries, the shows may still get cut. Cold Case and Without a Trace, like a lot of the cookie-cutter crime dramas, have solid viewer numbers, but not among the much-desired 18-49 demographic.

Without a Trace began in 2002, airing Thursdays after mega-hit CSI, but has since moved time slots several times. Now airing at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays, its ratings have slipped out of the top 20.

Cold Case debuted in 2003. For the week of March 2, 2009, it came in thirteenth place, with 12.62 million viewers.

Reps for CBS and Warner Bros. declined to comment. Uber-mogul Jerry Bruckheimer produces both Cold Case and Without a Trace, along with all of the CSIs and the new show Eleventh Hour.

The problem with these shows is they all blend together. The writers can’t seem to come up with original crimes for the teams to solve, so they try to spice things up by focusing on the characters’ private lives, but that too becomes redundant. There are only so many crises a law-enforcement officer can endure, so the characters end up getting shot and hospitalized, pregnant, addicted to painkillers, or having secret affairs with co-workers — or all of the above.

Another possible solution to raise ratings would be to pull a “Law & Order,” i.e. change up the cast, especially those actors who refuse lower salaries. This can be risky as well, but if it works on CSI, with Laurence Fishburne replacing William Petersen, then Anthony LaPaglia’s Agent Jack Malone may be forced into retirement to make room for Hugo Weaving and Kathryn Morris’s Detective Lily Rush may be killed off in favor of Carrie-Ann Moss.