TV News and Reviews

EW.com is reporting that due to cost-cutting measures, CBS is seriously considering canceling two of their successful procedural dramas, Without a Trace and Cold Case. Though the ratings are still solid, they’re apparently not what they once were, and the overhead is too high to justify keeping them around. TV.com adds that the audiences for Without a Trace and Cold Case tend to skew older, so they can’t sell as many trendy youth-oriented products to them.

I have mixed feelings about the decision. I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with Without a Trace: when it first premiered, I thought it was a terrible, poorly done show. After it had been on awhile, I tuned in again when nothing else was on, and found out the stories and acting (of Poppy Montgomery, particularly) had improved greatly. I fell in love with the show, and was blown away in particular by episodes that featured Anthony LaPaglia’s skill at sucking us into the stories and the terror and the heartbreak. He’s done some amazing work on this show.

Then, no doubt in a bid to get more ratings, Without a Trace added the tight-suit-wearing Roselyn Sanchez to the cast. One of the first episodes involved Sanchez’ and Montgomery’s characters having to kiss for some “undercover” operation. Yeah, right. Whatever. I was furious, because Without a Trace had been a serious drama up until that point, and to see it sell out was pretty disheartening. After awhile, it became clear that Sanchez had only been added for sex appeal. The writers didn’t seem to know what to do with her, and she became this awkward sixth wheel that didn’t add anything to the show.

I hung in there for awhile, but last year when Without a Trace started running opposite other shows I liked, Without a Trace lost out. It just didn’t seem to be the show I’d fallen in love with anymore. The show continually got heavier and heavier with the melodrama in the characters’ lives, instead of focusing the show’s attention on new and interesting cases. That was actually a big draw to Without a Trace for me–unlike shows featuring homicide divisions, Without a Trace involved missing persons cases. This meant that a large portion of the shows resulted in the missing person being found alive. A police procedural with a happy ending is a rare bird, and it was a nice change of pace.

Cold Case, too, has had its ups and downs. It hasn’t been helped by its timeslot–not only is it on Sunday night, but the show often gets pushed back due to sports events running over into its timeslot. I’ve given up on watching it a number of times, because it gets irritating having to keep turning on the TV to try and guess how far they’re into Amazing Race and when Cold Case will air.

Cold Case also did a little cast juggling in the beginning and made a misstep or two, but it settled down and has been a quality show for many years. I’ve talked before about Cold Case getting a little stale with its formulaic storylines, but this season has greatly improved and I still enjoy catching the show when I can. Cold Case has had some interesting story arcs, heartfelt weekly episodes, and intriguing guest stars.

Both shows have had good runs, Without a Trace is on its seventh season and Cold Case on its sixth. The unfortunate note about cancellation is that it sounds like the shows may get the ax when the current season is already over, which means the stories in progress will just abruptly end with no resolution. It would be nice if CBS would give the shows a chance to write proper endings, if they do in fact decide to cancel them.

Word is that both Without a Trace and Cold Case’s showrunners are looking for ways to cut costs, including star salary cuts, to try to give the network a reason to keep them afloat. If I had to vote on keeping only one show, I’d have to go with Cold Case at this point, but I doubt CBS will be asking anyone’s opinion.

For now, tune in to Cold Case on Sunday nights at 9/8c, and Without a Trace on Tuesday nights, 10/9c.

You can read all of my Cold Case blog entries here .