‘Drew’ -- ABC’s very own albatross

The term “buyer’s remorse” usually applies to unworn clothes or unwise real estate deals. Then there’s the more grandiose, television variety -- such as the regret ABC officials are feeling, having committed nearly $80 million for another season of “The Drew Carey Show,” a series they no longer want.

What was once ABC’s most-watched comedy returns tonight with its 200th episode -- normally a milestone that calls for champagne or at least a few bottles of Buzz beer. Yet the episodes airing this summer are leftovers from a season when ratings plummeted, prompting a five-month hiatus and ABC’s decision to leave the program off its fall schedule.

An additional 26 installments will begin production in August, with the network paying $3 million each, more than three times the typical fee for a half-hour sitcom. At this point, ABC doesn’t know when those episodes will see the light of day. Given the high cost and low ratings, the network under ordinary circumstances simply would have axed the series. But there’s too much money involved for that to happen.

The show goes on because ABC cemented a long-term extension with producer Warner Bros. in 2001, when “Drew Carey” was still a modest hit, and now the network is stuck with it. The studio makes a profit off that licensing fee alone, and TV stations across the country are contractually bound to take the reruns -- a lucrative combination that put the kibosh on any talk of letting the network back out.

“ABC is honoring their obligations,” said Carey’s manager, Richard Baker.

Network officials aren’t saying they wish they could bury the show, but their body language is easy to read.

“At the time that deal was made, everybody here was thrilled to have made it,” said ABC Entertainment President Susan Lyne, the fourth occupant of that job since the show premiered, who inherited the agreement. “You can’t second-guess these things. That’s part of the business.”

Making long-term commitments to programs is nothing new, and sometimes they work out fabulously. The seldom-discussed flip side, though, is having the bottom fall out on a big-ticket item like “Drew” or, to a lesser degree, NBC’s “Frasier,” at a time when networks are touting fiscal austerity in the face of shrinking audiences. Other series, such as “The X-Files” and “Mad About You,” also limped to the finish line. For the recently down-sized employees of ABC’s movie department, it’s probably best not to dwell on the mega-bucks shelled out for a show the network doesn’t want.

If “Drew” is an albatross now, ABC bears considerable responsibility for its sinking. Last fall, the network switched the show to Monday nights, out of the Wednesday slot it had occupied for five years. Moving any 8-year-old series is a tall order, further complicated in this case because the program followed “Monday Night Football” in part of the country and preceded it in others -- an awkward pattern for a comedy. When the move didn’t work, ABC shifted “Drew” to Friday, TV’s least-watched night.

Not surprisingly, last season’s ratings went south faster than a bat out of Cleveland, Carey’s beloved hometown -- off more than 40% from the year before. That left ABC holding the bill for another year, a predicament characterized more by embarrassment than acrimony.

Much of that is because Drew Carey himself has been such a model citizen, as TV stars go. Unlike his many spoiled brethren, he willingly glad-handed affiliates and advertisers, even showing up for events such as Disney theme park openings on behalf of ABC’s corporate parent.

“Anything they asked for all these years, he was there,” Baker said.

“He’s been an incredible supporter of ABC,” Lyne concurred, adding that maybe, just maybe, via its summer exposure “people will remember what they loved about the show.”

Despite harboring little hope of such a rebirth, Carey is reluctant to point fingers or assign blame. He said he feels less guilt about receiving the inflated price for a dead show because of the days when “Drew” was a hit and ABC paid little for it.

“If you take all the money they’ve made in the nine years, everyone comes out ahead,” he said.

As for how he motivates himself given the program’s dead-show airing status, Carey said he still enjoys producing it and knows the episodes yet to be shot will run in syndication for years to come.

“I’m trying to think long term,” he said. “We’re figuring we have nothing to lose. It’s really freeing creatively. What notes [from the network] could there be?”

Carey did lash out at ABC last year, when the network threatened to halt production on an episode that lampooned airport security.

“If you can’t satirize authority institutions, what’s the point?” he asked at the time.

For the most part, however, the star has been employee of the month and then some, also bringing ABC a solid utility player as producer and host of the improv show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” This isn’t to say he’s been toiling in the coal mines, currently earning a reported $750,000 per episode as star, producer and co-creator of his eponymous sitcom, or nearly $20 million for the final year.

“I’ve got too much money to be mad,” he quipped.

Although ratings began to slide two seasons ago, the producers cite the competition, noting “The West Wing” hit its peak in the time period and Fox’s “The Bernie Mac Show” had just premiered. ABC did benefit from scheduling “The Bachelor” in “Drew’s” old slot, but lost amid the network’s enthusiasm about the dating show’s performance was that it “may have damaged their longest-running comedy in the process,” Baker said.

“Drew Carey” has been overly broad at times in recent years (though Carey contends it’s never been funnier), and it’s conceivable the show ran out of gas. Tonight’s episodes reflect that unevenness, but there are funny moments too.

Whatever its shortcomings, “The Drew Carey Show” laudably took chances, from live episodes to improvisational shows to elaborate music-and-dance sequences. At its best, the show conveyed a sense that those involved were having fun -- a rarity in TV, where even wealth and success seldom eliminate whining and disgruntlement.

Both Carey and Baker concede they’ll never know how much the time-period changes hastened “Drew’s” demise, but this much is clear: For all the good-natured fun the show poked at Cleveland, when it comes to getting nothing for something and to “authority institutions” worthy of satire, there’s no place quite like Hollywood.

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Brian Lowry’s column appears Wednesdays. He can be reached at brian.lowry@latimes.com.

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‘Drew’s’ draw

The audience for “The Drew Carey Show” has plummeted.

*--* Year: Average viewers: 02-03** 5.4 million 01-02 9.1 00-01 12.6 99-00 14.5 98-99 14.8 97-98* 16.6 96-97 17.0 95-96 14.5 * Began airing Wednesdays at 9 ** Moved to Mondays, then Fridays

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