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Q: Why was "JAG" with David James Elliott canceled and replaced with "NCIS," which has similar storylines? Was there a problem with Elliott? We haven't seen him in anything for a long time.

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

There are two explanations for why CBS canceled "JAG" back in 2005: A nice one, and an angry one (which may or may not make it more believable).

The nice one is that David James Elliott chose to leave the show. The timeline of when he made this decision and when the show was canceled fits together nicely: Elliott announced in February that he had signed a deal with rival network ABC, effectively quitting the show; CBS announced the show's cancelation two months later (that being enough time to schedule a couple of panicky meetings about what to do).

However, series creator Donald P. Bellisario offered a different, somewhat bitter explanation, saying it was a matter of cold demographics. "Our 18- to 34-year-old audience is almost nonexistent," he told the Dallas Morning News. "So unless they're [advertisers] after the geriatric crowd, they're not going to advertise on 'JAG.' That's absolutely what killed it."

The surprising candor of his response gives it some credibility, but it doesn't address the fact that Elliott did, in fact, decide to leave the show. Theoretically, "JAG" could have gone on without him, but it had already been on the air 10 years at that point, so that would have been a tough sell.

Neither explanation has anything to do with "NCIS." Shows and their spinoffs air alongside each other all the time -- see, for example, "NCIS" itself and its two spinoffs, based in L.A. and New Orleans.

Sadly (or justly, depending on how much you miss "JAG"), Elliott's deal with ABC never amounted to much -- he did a single pilot for the network, called "Sixty Minute Man," but it wasn't picked up to series. As fans know, he's struggled to find anything permanent at all since "JAG."

 

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