The Will
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The Will was an American reality television series on CBS that lasted only one episode, shown on Saturday, January 8, 2005. It centered on the 'Benefactor', a multi-millionaire from Arizona named Bill Long. Ten of his friends and relatives competed in a series of challenges to win the right to inherit his "prized possession", a huge Kansas ranch. [1]
The show was created by Mike Fleiss, who produced The Bachelor for ABC. The Will is one of only a handful of series in American history to be pulled after one episode. The show perhaps most associated with this phenomenon is the 1969 series Turn-On.
In the case of The Will, cancellation was due to very low ratings. Despite receiving a heavy promotional push from CBS, the program averaged only 4.2 million viewers during its 8:00-9:30PM ET/PT time slot, which made it CBS's lowest-ranked show of the week. The following Saturday, the network replaced it with a re-run of Cold Case, a crime drama.
The quick cancellation of The Will was lampooned on an episode of the ABC late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live with a montage of clips from the show, and the message "Will Miss You--January 8, 2005 - January 8, 2005."
It has been reported that the remaining five episodes may appear on a US cable network in the future, but as of summer 2006 there has been no official announcement to this effect. It is now being seen on the In2TV website. The series aired in New Zealand from December 2005 in an evening slot.
New Zealand audiences were able to witness the show's contestants being whittled down to Penny, Billy, Bette and Scott in the final week, with Penny - largely considered the villainess of the series - winning the final round.[2]
