TV Troubles: DAG Drops; Angels' Wings Clipped

ByABC News
November 24, 2000, 6:43 PM

November 24 -- November sweeps brought more trouble for NBC, as its White House comedy DAG took a ratings nose dive.

The David Alan Grier series, which resides on the peacock net's Tuesday block, had a modest premiere Nov. 14 a 6.5 rating among adults 18 to 49 but dropped 15 percent to a 5.5 rating its second week out, according to Inside.com.

Despite following the solid Frasier, DAG held only 74 percent of its lead-in audience in the 18-to-49 demographic. Last week, it retained 86 percent.

Some speculate that Florida election news coverage has hurt several shows' prime-time ratings. But compared to other networks' programs in the same time slot (like Fox's Dark Angel, and even ABC's Geena), DAG is looking downright haggard.

If DAG continues its Nielsen free fall, NBC won't hesitate to chop it from the Tuesday lineup. The network has already axed three of its ill-performing Monday night freshman shows, and could easily do the same to its troubled Tuesday roster (which also features the ailing Michael Richards Show).

A ratings point represents 1,022,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 102.2 million TV homes.

City of Angels D.O.A.Over on CBS, the urban hospital drama City of Angels was canceled due to poor ratings.

Though CBS stood behind the Steven Bochco-produced series over the summer, when its numbers were faltering, the network said it could no longer justify Angels' existence.

"City of Angels has been a tremendous source of pride for all of us at CBS both for its dramatic quality, and for its role in our ongoing pursuit of diversity on the air," CBS spokesman Chris Ender told The Associated Press Wednesday.

City of Angels featured a mostly black medical cast, including actor Blair Underwood.

In an effort to salvage Angels, CBS had relaunched the drama in July by premiering repeats of the series on Thursdays. The network had hoped its lead-in, the reality show Big Brother, would help boost Angels' numbers. Bad move: The boring Big Brother probably scared viewers away well before City of Angels came on.