(Photo by: Alan Markfield/CBS)
Harry and Helen won’t return to work for the 2023-24 broadcast season. The True Lies TV show has been cancelled so that viewers won’t see a second year on CBS.
An action series based on the 1994 movie, the True Lies TV show stars Ginger Gonzaga, Steve Howey, Erica Hernandez, Omar Miller, Mike O’Gorman, Annabella Didion, and Lucas Jaye. The story follows Harry Tasker (Howey), a bland and unremarkable computer consultant husband who is secretly a first-class international spy for Omega Sector. His wife, Helen (Gonzaga) is a language professor bored with her daily routine. One day, she makes the shocking discovery that her seemingly ordinary husband is leading an extraordinary double life. With the secret out, his agency recruits her and she impresses everyone with her formidable skills (thanks partly to Tae Bo and yoga). Working together with Harry’s team, the couple adds much-needed sizzle to their emotionally distant marriage and upends the top-secret world of Omega Sector.
Airing on Wednesday nights, the first season of True Lies averages a 0.24 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 2.61 million viewers. It’s the network’s lowest-rated scripted show and, other than 48 Hours (which airs late on Saturday nights), it’s CBS’ lowest-rated show overall. In the live+7 day ratings, True Lies picks up nearly 70% more viewers. Even with that boost, it’s still one of the network’s lowest-rated scripted shows.
The show’s chances of survival were also hurt because the series is produced by 20th Television, an outside studio.
The final two episodes air on May 17th. Here’s a description of the de facto series finale, “Waking Dreams”: The entire agency searches for clues with an Omega Sector spy missing. Harry and Helen’s relationship with each other, their team, and reality itself, is tested in unimaginable ways, even for the best of spies and spouses.
East New York, another freshman drama series from an outside studio, was also cancelled today. Meanwhile, SWAT was revived.
What do you think? Have you enjoyed the True Lies TV series? Are you sad that this CBS show wasn’t renewed for a second season? Were you expecting it to be cancelled?