VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH CBS TELEVISION PULLING OF THE PLUG...AND DETERMINED TO SUPPORT THE RETURN OF, 'THREE RIVERS', "TRANSPLANT" SERIES.........

Since early October I have been watching and encouraging my circle of friends and fellow believers in Presentation, St. Philomene's and St. Rose's parishes, to view the new first season drama on CBS-TV, 'THREE RIVERS'. 'Three Rivers', is a drama based on transplant medicine and organ donation, a topic I have experienced first hand over the past several months. After airing just eight episodes of the thirteen episodes ordered at the beginning of the current television season, CBS announced an indefinite hiatus of the series last week. Authentically created, produced, acted, written, and directed, ' Three Rivers' has a superb cast, led by Alex O'Loughlin and Alfre Woodard. CBS is premature and wrong to end the series after just eight airings, given its outstanding quality and consciousness raising about a vitally important subject of concern to millions of persons around the world. It is also unfair to the ability of a series the caliber of 'Three Rivers', to place it in a time slot that is a network suicide squeeze, as the show, which has drawn as many as 8.4 million viewers in the episodes aired, was placed in the 9 pm Eastern and Pacific time slot on Sunday nights, opposite ABC's, 'Desperate Housewives', and NBC's, 'Football Sunday Night'. Why should the CBS network pull the plug on 'Three Rivers', before giving it another day and time on the schedule to find a solid audience ? Say put it in the time slot on Tuesday nights between 'NCIS' and 'The Good Wife', and shift the number one new series of the season, 'NCIS Los Angeles', to the Sunday night slot, or any other weak spot for CBS in prime time. The leadership of old at CBS-TV, Founder /CEO, the late William Paley and his colleagues, would have done that. By doing so, they developed hit television series and specials, that gained CBS the title of being,"The Tiffany Network", from 1956-1976. Two examples of getting the most from a series the quality of, 'Three Rivers', on CBS makes my point. In the early 1970's the programmers at CBS-TV decided to cancel the sixteen year old series, 'Gunsmoke', starring James Arness, as Marshall Matt Dillon. 'Gunsmoke' was Mr. Paley's favorite show. When the final proposed fall schedule for the following season was presented to him without 'Gunsmoke' on it, Paley ordered it to be continued and the series went on for another four years. In 1994, a similar occurrence to that of 'Three Rivers', predicament took place on CBS. 'Touched By An Angel', premiered that September on Thursday nights opposite NBC's,"Must See" comedy bloc, including, 'Friends', and 'Seinfeld'. In a very short time, down went 'Touched By An Angel'. That was until a magnitude of people in the viewing audience protested vehemently at its cancellation, and caused CBS to return it to the schedule. Given a Saturday night time slot at midseason, 'Touched By An Angel', found a devoted audience, was moved to Sunday nights the next season and ran for 9 years, as a hit CBS series. 'Three Rivers', is in the same possible situation. Given a further chance by the network it can, and I predict, will become a successful show that both entertains and educates for several years. Therefore, I ask you to join me in protesting to CBS Television and request they return 'Three Rivers', to the network broadcast schedule. You can do so by calling the Administrative Offices of CBS-13 in Sacramento, at 916-374-1313; or the Programs Comment Office of CBS-Inc., in New York, at 212-975-3247. If you have not yet seen 'Three Rivers', you can still find video clips and the last two full episodes aired, on the CBS.com website on the internet. In a decade of inane reality shows, a quality dramatic program, with the excellence of 'Three Rivers', deserves to continue. Thank you for sharing my concern about this truly fine show.........Faithfully Witnessing and Advocating in the spirit of Transplantation for the Continuation of 'Three Rivers',
Fr. Troy David Powers