From KCRW in Santa Monica, I'm Claude Browdessa Ackner, and this is The Business.

So you still want to do the show business, and you think that you got what it takes.

I mean, you really got a rap and be all at it.

Get yourself for the brakes, check it out.

This week on The Business, what does it mean for your TV show to be on the bubble?

And we're not talking about being drunk on Champagne. We'll speak

with the producers of Scrubs and Jericho about coming back from the brink of extinction. Get ready

for the show that's always on the bubble. And this time I do mean drunk on Champaign. It's the

business from NPR.

On The Bubble is the television term for a show that's in danger of being canceled.

These are often shows that receive low audience numbers but strong critical acclaim,

or shows that used to have big numbers but don't seem to be doing as well anymore.

It might simply be that the show just doesn't appeal to people. But it's just as likely that it was given a difficult time slot, or got moved

around like a chess piece, or didn't get the right, or enough promotion. The life expectancy of a show

that's on the bubble is determined by a complex and somewhat mysterious calculus. Today, we're going to try and

make some sense of why a show lives or dies when it's on the bubble with two case studies,

Scrubs and Jericho. NBC's offbeat Dr. Dramedy Scrubs first hit the airwaves in 2001.

Seeing an intern tells someone they're going to die for the first time is strange.

Because even though it's a horrible and sad experience, if they get through it, there's a sense of accomplishment.

Nailed it. Hell yeah. Good job, man. What'd you say? Well, I just told them that there's nothing

more we can do right now. Scrobs was an Emmy magnet from the get-go, but the network was never really happy with the size

of its audience.

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