Commander in Chief: Surprise Hit of the Season

The third week of ABC's Commander in Chief saw the show retaining most of its audience as it remained the top-rated show Tuesday night.

However, production of ABC's Commander in Chief has fallen so far behind schedule that the network became so concerned that it would have to preempt it or show repeats during the November sweeps, the network has decided to replace creator Rod Lurie with producer Steven Bochco.

The New York Times noted that not only was it unusual to replace the "show runner" of a hit series two weeks into its on-air run, but that it was especially odd to select Bochco, who has previously played a principal role in the creation of every show he has been involved with and has never joined a show that another writer had created.

Steven Bochco, best known for creating the crime dramas NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law. Rod Lurie, a former movie critic at Los Angeles talk-radio station KABC, will remain as executive producer but will play no role in the production of the new hit show.

Newspaper TV writers observed that it was highly unusual for such a change to be made after a show debuts with the kind of success that Commander in Chief has achieved. Saturday's Washington Post quoted sources as saying that Lurie and the network had creative differences about future episodes. The report was denied by an ABC spokesman. The Daily Variety said that the changeover was necessitated because episodes were not being delivered in a timely fashion.

In a statement Lurie said, "I've been a huge fan of Steven Bochco's for over two decades. I'm blown-away excited to see how much more he will electrify Commander In Chief."