• E! Online, Wednesday, February 15, 2006 11:15 AM

E! Online's Joal Ryan offers a midseason post mortem on the brief, unfortunate history of "Commander in Chief." The ABC series, which opened as an unqualified hit, rapidly ran into some troubles which the network attempted to resolve by a quickie switch of executive producers. It has now gone into hiatus amid questions as to its future. Rarely has an hour-long drama experienced the rollercoaster ride of "Commander," which stars Geena Davis. Almost by the week, as E! Online chronicles, the show lost ground with its audience. It was vulnerable, and it took a big hit when Fox came back with a fresh season of "House," and then, weeks later, ratings-crusher "American Idol." There's a good chance "Commander in Chief" will return in May, but ABC will make no commitments. All in all, the lesson learned by ABC is that... well, it's not clear. Television being television, some fixes will be attempted, and "Commander" will probably get another chance to grow its audience. But if things don't turn around in short order, the once high-flyer will be gone for good before the November elections.

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