''The Will'' was an American

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

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. The show was created by

Mike Fleiss Mike L. Fleiss (born April 14, 1964) is an American television producer and writer. Early life Fleiss was raised in Fullerton, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley. Career He is the creator, producer and writer of '' ...

, who produced '' The Bachelor'' for

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

. ''The Will'' is one of only a handful of series in American history to be pulled after one episode. 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 cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or re ...

'', a crime drama. The quick cancellation of ''The Will'' was lampooned on an episode of the

late night talk show ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

'' with a montage of clips from the show, and the message "Will Miss You--January 8, 2005 - January 8, 2005." Although it was initially reported that the five remaining episodes could appear on an American cable network, they eventually did air on the

Fox Reality Channel Fox Reality Channel was an American pay television channel. It was launched on May 24, 2005, and was owned by the Fox Entertainment Group. It featured many shows that were originally on the Fox network (or produced by Fox). The channel also featu ...

not long afterwards, and all six episodes aired in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

beginning in December 2005. In the final episode, Long's wife Penny (widely seen as the show's villain) became the overall winner.

Episodes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Will 2000s American reality television series 2005 American television series debuts 2005 American television series endings CBS original programming Television series canceled after one episode