Cancellation and Controversy
The series was not heavily promoted. It debuted to low ratings. CBS bounced it on and off the schedule, and the network ultimately aired only nine of the thirteen episodes. After the eighth episode, "The Afternoon Wife," performed poorly in the ratings in March, the network canceled the show. The final episodes were to be aired over the summer. The ninth episode, "Veda," was broadcast in August. It was the last episode CBS would air.
The tenth episode, "Women in Film," featured a myriad of female celebrity cameo appearances and ended with a one minute montage of women being brutally abused. CBS agreed to air the episode, but only if the final montage was excised. The scene aired a week early on the tabloid television show Hard Copy, but CBS opted not to air the episode at the last moment, and the series abruptly vanished from the air. 21 days after "Women in Film" was initially scheduled to air, the Lifetime cable network (who had exclusive airing rights at the time for Designing Women) aired the final four episodes (along with a rerun of an earlier episode titled "Men Are Good") as a marathon. "Women in Film" aired last, out of sequence, and the marathon concluded with a brief interview with writer/creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. The heavily promoted marathon was broadcast several times; none of the other episodes were rerun in the US.
Read more about this topic: Women Of The House
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)