A repeat of CBS' amazingly resilient NCIS won at 7 p.m. in total D-FW viewers, edging Talent by a score of 242,400 to 235,974. Voice rang up 214,697 total viewers from 8 to 10 p.m. to win in that measurement. Combat Hospital, an imported Canadian production, opened well with 200,845 total viewers at 9 p.m., running just a hair behind the competing closing hour of Voice (207,771 viewers). CH also placed second with 18-to-49-year-olds.
In Tuesday's local news derby results, Fox4 and WFAA8 collected all of the golds.
Fox4 flexed by running the table at 6 a.m. before adding total viewer victories at 5 and 6 p.m.
This Canadian-produced summer series, which premieres tonight at 10 on Channel 5, is completely divorced from anything resembling real life. Marks is played by Elias Koteas, who looks like he could be Christopher Meloni’s twin.
These doctors, along with an arrogant Brit played by Luke Mably who immediately tries to seduce Rebecca, deal with all the medical-drama cliches. The idea of a show set smack in the middle of the war in Afghanistan is exciting and, to some extent, incendiary. ABC had modest luck last summer with another similarly limp Canadian drama, “Rookie Blue.’’
It’s a safe bet that life and work in a military hospital in Kandahar make for a gruelling experience.
Combat Hospital (Global, ABC, 10 p.m.) is about that life and line of work, but watching it is very far from gruelling. Combat Hospital is a war-is-heck drama. It’s the horrors of war and the awfulness of a combat hospital seen emphatically through the prism of TV drama. Familiar characters and situations abound. The show is as plain-spoken as its title.
Tuesday night’s starting episode, written by Daniel Petrie Jr. and directed by Iain MacDonald, unfolds without fuss or surprise. Stuff happens: Badly injured soldiers and others are rushed into the hospital. We meet a handsome-but-slimy civilian doctor, neurosurgeon Simon Hill (Luke Mably). If you’ve seen more than half a dozen TV dramas, you can pick out the likely suspect.
It’s network TV drama, airing in the summer, and it was never intended to be political, controversial or unconventional. A running joke, from the start, is the Rebecca Gordon character saying that she has read “the manual” about working as a doctor at a military hospital. The show itself has all the hallmarks of being made with a TV-drama manual.
Combat Hospital is the entertaining version.