TVGuide has an insider account as to why intoxicating heist drama Smith was canceled after only three episodes. Smith was, by all accounts, an excellent and promising show. Yet, after the ratings dipped from week one to week three, CBS pulled the plug and gave no reason for the abrupt decision. Well, now it looks like we have a couple of definitive reasons for Smith's exit.
According to TVGuide, Smith cost upwards of $3 million per episode to produce. This makes sense; every episode looked like a forty-five minute movie and the entire show was filmed on location. Another aspect that's a little intriguing is something that Ray Liotta gripes about in the TVGuide article. Apparently, the producers were keeping the actors and CBS in the dark regarding the direction the story was taking in the first season. This didn't inspire confidence in either the actors or the network. Was this a deciding factor in Smith's cancellation? Maybe. You can never know what is the truth and what is media fodder. What we do know is this: Smith was a high quality program that wasn't given enough time to find its audience. -Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer