Profit (TV Series) - Controversy and Cancellation

Controversy and Cancellation

Despite numerous positive critical reviews and intense industry buzz, Profit was canceled after only 5 of the 9 produced hours were broadcast on Fox in the USA. Low Nielsen ratings were cited as the official cause; Profit ranked 138th of 160 shows for 1996 and suffered from viewer tune-out during the airing of the 2-hour pilot episode. Other factors that may have hastened the demise of Profit include:

• Viewers were reported to have flooded their local Fox network affiliates with phone calls objecting to the amoral actions of the lead character Jim Profit and referring to him as "Satan in a Suit"; these opinions were expressed most vociferously by viewers located in the Bible Belt area of the USA. Some Fox network affiliates even threatened to preempt Profit in their local markets and replace it with alternative programming.

• Members of the business community were outraged that Profit portrayed them so poorly. Shaifali Puri of Fortune said: "Just in case there's anyone left who isn't convinced corporate America is a den of naked ambition and bald turpitude, comes now (the TV show) Profit." It was rumored that even the creator of the Fox network Rupert Murdoch objected to the edgy portrayal of corporate America in Profit, although Adrian Pasdar was quoted as saying that Profit was Murdoch's favorite TV show.

• Airings of Profit consistently lost almost all of the lead-in audience from Melrose Place which was scheduled in the timeslot immediately preceding Profit. This reportedly did not sit well with Melrose Place's executive producer Aaron Spelling, especially after glowing Time and Entertainment Weekly reviews of Profit while previous reviews from these magazines were highly critical of Melrose Place. Adrian Pasdar was approached by Spelling for the role of Jake Hanson on Melrose Place in 1992, but Pasdar refused to even meet with Spelling who was widely considered one of the most powerful and influential television producers of the 1990s.

Profit co-creator David Greenwalt hypothesized that "What might have turned off viewers to Profit wasn't just that it was so different but that it was such an affront to it." The cancellation of Profit was lamented by the organization Viewers for Quality Television; VQT founder Dorothy Swanson stated: "It certainly was not a mainstream show. It wasn't for everyone. There were parts of it I'm sure mainstream viewers found very disturbing and unappealing. But for people who like interesting television, it was very well written. It was spellbinding. You had to know what made this guy (Jim Profit) tick."