CBS Pulls ‘Grand Slam’ for Two Comedies

The CBS action/adventure comedy “Grand Slam” on Thursday became the latest series to fail to benefit from a post-Super Bowl debut. CBS removed the show from its schedule, replacing it with two comedies.

“Grand Slam” was troubled from its debut, getting roundly panned by critics for excessive violence and lack of originality. Despite a huge promotional effort by the network, “Grand Slam” failed to do as well as most other entertainment series that previously had premiered immediately after a Super Bowl game. It received an 18.6 rating, good for 15th place among prime-time shows airing that week. (By comparison, although it was the lowest rated Super Bowl since 1971, Super Bowl XXIV received a 39 rating--with each rating point representing 921,000 homes.)

The ratings for “Grand Slam” plummeted further when it moved into its regular Wednesday time slot Jan. 31--to an 8.1 rating and 68th place. The show it replaced, “Beauty and the Beast,” had a 9.5 rating. “Everybody was really shocked,” producer Bill L. Norton recalled Thursday. The episode after the Super Bowl had built its share-of-audience “from a 29 during the first half hour to a 33 . . . and there was every indication we would have a hit.”

Norton contended that the show’s time period, more suited to situation comedies than action series, contributed to its problems. “I’m not sure it’s the type of show that belongs at 8 p.m.,” he said.

Of the eight series that have premiered after a Super Bowl, only three were renewed for the following season, with just two--”The A-Team” and “The Wonder Years”--becoming certified hits.

A CBS spokesman maintained that “Grand Slam” was only being put on hiatus at this point, although it has completed production of the seven episodes ordered. But its ranking as No. 91 among the 96 prime-time series that have aired on the three major networks this season, makes it an unlikely candidate for renewal.

It was the second series to be dropped by CBS this week, following “Island Son.”

Taking over at 8 p.m. on March 21 will be “Sydney,” starring Valerie Bertinelli as a young, single Los Angeles private investigator. It will be followed at 8:30 p.m. by “Normal Life,” starring real-life brother and sister Dweezil and Moon Zappa. The show is billed as a look at slightly off-center Hollywood Hills family. Cindy Williams and Max Gail co-star as the parents.

They are the first comedies to be scheduled on the third-place network this season other than on Monday night.