JAG will soon be MIA from CBS.
Faced with declining ratings, a demographically undesirable audience and the desertion of star David James Elliot, network brass made the decision to retire the military-legal drama with Friday's series finale (9 p.m. ET/PT).
Touted as a cross between Top Gun and A Few Good Men, JAG followed the uniformed members of the Judge Advocate General corps led by former Navy pilot-turned military attorney Commander Harmon "Harm" Rabb Jr. (Elliott) and his sexy partner, Lieutenant Colonel Sarah "Mac MacKenzie (Catherine Bell). Together, the two solved crimes with their smarts and a good dose of action.
The series has charted an unlikely course through the annals of TV history. It debuted on NBC in 1995 and was canceled it after only one season. CBS called JAG back to duty, replaced Harm's original female sparring partner, Lieutenant Meg Austin (Tracey Needham), and saw the show it fit in well with the Tiffany network's lineup of older-skewing fare like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and Diagnosis Murder. JAG quickly established itself as fixture in the Nielsen top 20.
But as CBS has made an effort to draw younger viewers with its CSI franchise and reality hits like Survivor, Big Brother and The Amazing Race, Harm and his crack squad of investigators seemed old-fashioned.
JAG's average viewership slipped to 9.7 million viewers this season from 10.9 million a year ago. As recently as the 2002-03 season JAG was a top 25 performer for the network, averaging 13.3 million viewers;
Show mastermind Donald P. Bellisario, an ex-Marine whose résumé includes such seminal '80s series as Magnum P.I., Quantum Leap and Airwolf, says it doesn't matter that fewer viewers are tuning in as much as who those viewers are.
"The reason JAG is not coming back is purely demographic. Nothing more," he said in a conference call. "Our 18-to-34-year-old audience is almost nonexistent. Almost all of our viewers are over 50. Why don't advertisers go for that group? My God, we have a lot more money than any of these kids."
Another key reason for CBS to pull the plug was the pending depature of Elliott, who starred on the series from its outset. He recently inked a development deal with ABC and was leaving at the end of this season, whether or not JAG was renewed.
Despite its honorable service, JAG never received a medal, virtually ignored come Emmy time. But Bellisario said accolades didn't matter; he merely wanted to make a show that people liked.
"We just kept getting a great mass of Middle America, if you can use that term anymore," the producer said. "These are people who like the basic values of the military and former military people who have tuned in because we treat the military decently. It gave me a platform to talk about the Marine Corps and Navy in a positive but not jingoistic way."
Friday's finale will signal a mission well accomplished after 227 episodes. Bellisario had been plotting an alternate storyline involving a new character, Navy Lieutenant Gregory Vukovic (Chris Beete of As the World Turns), to replace Harm, but when he learned that CBS wouldn't renew the series, he hastily came up with a more fitting swan song.
According to the CBS press release, the show will reward longtime fans with a satisfying ending that will see Harm and Mac finally facing their feelings for each other.
"In our last episode, there were some really sweet, beautiful scenes," Bell told USA Today. "They had me in tears. After one of the scenes, we got a standing ovation from the crew."
The memories will live on in syndication, as will its spinoff, the Bellisario-produced NCIS, starring Mark Harmon, which is averaging 13.6 million in JAG's old Tuesday time slot.
"We've had an amazing run," Bellisario said, "particularly for a series that was once canceled."