With the cancellation of "Smith" from the CBS (CBS) fall menu, it leaves a lot of questions that haven't been answered.
For example, it had a great start with 11 million viewers watching the first episode. The next two episodes averaged over nine million viewers for the night - and then CBS cancelled it.
The obvious question is why? Why pull it when it had some fairly good success? Why pull it after three shows when there was no way to know how well it would really do; it wasn't on long enough to even get a fair measurement. The fact that they were in the middle of filming 
several episodes shows that it was something done that wasn't expected.
Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, made the comment that it wasn't the case of the network looking for results quicker.
"One of the things we do very well is continue to work and develop a show well into its first year and second year," Tassler said.
Nina Tassler
This doesn't make any sense when you consider the actions taken concerning "Smith." Tassler went on to say in an interview that the reason it was pulled was because of the confusing story line in the show. That doesn't make much sense when you consider a show like "Lost," and it's almost total lack of any type of storyline whatsoever; and yet it's still popular.
Another reason cited was because the show wasn't holding the viewers from "The Unit" and "NCIS," the lead-in shows for "Smith." It would be impossible to make that conclusion based upon three shows.
Part of the real reason is that the cost of producing these shows is very high. It demands a large viewership, which television may not be able to deliver any longer. Probably another reason is that with people not sticking around for the second half of the show, it reveals that they don't want to have to commit to the show in a way that demands them to be engrossed in it.
I had a favorite show that I was watching for years that eventually I stopped watching because if I missed the show, I lost a lot of the flow because there were a number of complexities that had to be continually kept up with. Sure I could have taped it and watched it, but then you have to catch up with taking a lot of extra time to do that, plus then watch the next part of the series. For me it wasn't worth it. I think many people feel the same way.
The bottom line in this is that the cost of doing these shows is limiting the opportunity for success in an increasingly fragmented marketplace. There may no longer be the viewership to justify making shows that have never-ending storylines.
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