Legal drama 'The Guardian' anxiously awaits word on future

The decision won't be known till next month.
By LYNN ELBER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES -- When a series faces the threat of cancellation, producers do whatever they can to keep it alive: seek publicity, badger the network for more promotion, spy.
Spy?
Sure, says Mark Johnson of "The Guardian," whose hope for another season depends in large part on whether CBS decides it's found a replacement that might draw higher ratings in the 2004-05 season.
Johnson and fellow executive producer David Hollander, the series' creator, aren't remaining idle while the network ponders its options.
"We practically steal scripts out of Xerox machines," Johnson said, engaging in just a bit of hyperbole. "I also canvas agents: 'What do you hear about this one? Have you talked to anybody who's seen that pilot?' It's not like I can do something subversive, but I can get an idea of what's out there, what's working and not working."
Braced for pop
Johnson and Hollander believe "The Guardian," in its third season, is working well and deserves a future. But it's a show "on the bubble," in industry lingo, braced for a possible, fearful pop.
The drama, starring Simon Baker as wayward attorney Nick Fallin, airs its last two episodes of the season -- and maybe the series -- Tuesday and May 4, at 9 p.m.
"I don't think they've [CBS] decided if the show is gone," said Hollander. "I would like to know one way or the other."
First, he figures CBS has some amends to make. "The Guardian" was pulled in March to give "Century City" a six-week tryout. When it flopped within a month, "The Guardian" was thrust back on the air so quickly that TV guide listings couldn't be updated to alert its fans.
"You're on the bubble, but we'll pull you off the air. You're on the bubble, but we won't promote you," said Hollander, giving his take on network logic. "You're on the bubble and we'll put you on when we please -- and do great things for us."
His frustration, speaking the day after shooting wrapped, was understandable. Hollander has been hands-on for the vast majority of episodes, mixing writing, directing and producing tasks.
He would typically be saying goodbye to the cast and crew for their summer break while he started work on scripts for next year.
Packing up
But it wasn't business as usual at the offices "The Guardian" calls home on the Sony studio lot. The staff was preparing for a funeral that may or may not happen, packing up as if the show had already died.
If it returns, so will they. But the outcome won't be known until next month, when CBS presents its new fall schedule to Madison Avenue in the annual "upfront" extravaganza.
In the meantime, CBS remains mum. That leaves Hollander and Johnson to do the talking, hoping to catch the attention of viewers and network executives.
What can they say or do at this late date? They have the ear of CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves, they say, and are lobbying for more on-air promotions that could give "The Guardian" a ratings boost.
Some disadvantages
A solid if unspectacular performer during its run, "The Guardian" is averaging 10.5 million viewers this season, down 13 percent from last year.
More dangerously, it lags in the advertiser favored 18-to-49 age group that CBS, after long disdaining such demographic parsing, embraced when it began to make inroads with younger viewers.
"The Guardian" attracts a little more than a fourth of the young adult crowd that watches CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." The second "CSI" spinoff, set in New York, may be hovering over "The Guardian's" time slot.
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