[Updated; pg.2]
NewsMax reporting:
Monday, Jan. 30, 2006 3:10 p.m. EST
'Commander in Chief' Pulled from ABC Lineup
"Commander in Chief” started out as the season’s most talked-about new show, but the initial hype didn’t translate into solid ratings – and ABC has shelved the White House drama.
The network announced over the weekend that it is pulling the show – which stars Geena Davis as the first female president – until spring to make way for a new comedy, "Sons & Daughters.” The "Commander" show will be off the air for at least six weeks, the New York Post reports.
That can’t be good news for Hillary Clinton. NewsMax columnist James Hirsen has called "Commander in Chief” a "series-style Hillary campaign commercial.”
ABC insiders denied there’s any connection between Hillary and "Commander.” But the show’s lead writer, Steve Cohen, served as the then-first lady’s deputy communications director in the 1990s.
In October, NewsMax reported that disgraced former national security adviser Sandy Berger had signed on as an adviser to the show, joining fellow Clintonistas Cohen and Capricia Marshall, the former social secretary for the Clinton White House.
"Hillary operatives” were monitoring the show "as a barometer of how she might fare in ’08,” the New York Daily News reported at the time.
In that case, the show’s failings don’t portend well for Hillary. After attracting an audience of 16 million when it premiered in September, "Commander” drew barely 10 million last week, its lowest audience ever.
The show’s shelving might not bode well for Condoleezza Rice, either. Americans for Rice, which is dedicated to drafting the secretary of state to run for the White House in 2008, bought TV time in New Hampshire, the critical primary state, during the show’s premiere.
The organization’s co-chairman Richard Mason said the show would help in the "mainstreaming of the idea of having a female commander in chief,” the Post reported.
Rice has denied an interest in running for president.