Third and Goal
Deep into its third season, Third Watch is still striving for respect.
by Brian Hartigan

This season, of all seasons, you'd think that Third Watch - a show about New York City emergency workers - would have gained more respect from both viewers and its network. Instead, NBC has kept the show at 9 p.m. on Mondays where it's slugging it out with Everybody Loves Raymond, Ally McBeal and Monday Night Football.

As a result, Third Watch is mired in the middle of the pack, consistently coming in last in its time-slot. In Canada, however, the show places in the Top 20, undoubtedly thanks to the fact that CTV kept the show on its schedule at 10 p.m., where it thrived last season on NBC.

But there's good news. Third Watch's numbers were up in December and, while the show may be stuck in its time-slot, it's certainly not stuck creatively. In fact, to many viewers, Third Watch seems to be getting better every episode, an observation shared by its cast and crew.

Eddie Cibrian, who plays firefighter Jimmy Doherty, feels that the show has quietly come into its own. "We, the actors, and the writers and directors have a better feeling of what we're doing now," he says. "As far as the actors go, we now have more input into our characters." The result has been a steady turn away from bang-up action toward more character-focused episodes, a change that began with the show's second season premiere on Oct. 2, 2000. That episode, entitled "The Lost," focused on the rescuers' search for a kidnapped man who was buried alive and focused on the toll the search takes on many of the characters. "[After the first season, the producers] sat us down and said 'We want to create a show that will make an impact on people's lives so we're going to go for something a little different'," Cibrian says. "And it worked."

Adds executive producer John Wells: "When we were on Sundays, we got a lot of pressure from [NBC] to make it into more of a rescue show with less emphasis on the characters. When we moved to Mondays, we turned a corner...the show wasn't a huge hit so we didn't have a lot to lose. That actually worked out well for us."

Another benchmark episode came post-Sept. 11. Being a show about emergency medical technicians in New York City, the tragedy was impossible to ignore; however coming up with a respectful ad meaningful response proved tricky. "The people who were most anxious about getting us right back on the air were actually the [EMTs] that we work with," says Wells. "With their encouragement, we started to listen to their stories and recording them." Producers then streamlined their 61 hours of interview footage into a two-hour documentary episode spotlighting the real heroes of that day. The episode aired Oct. 15 and was hailed as a fitting tribute to New York's EMTs.

"They're really why we are on the air and why we are telling this story," says Amy Carlson, who plays firefighter Alex Taylor. "I was really proud of what we did." Carlson says she also feels pride that many of those real-life heroes count themselves as Third Watch fans. For Jason Wiles, who plays police officer "Bosco" Boscorelli, that fact became surrealistically clear during his first visit to Ground Zero. "The chief of police stopped me to say hello and his wife was there saying 'Look who's here! Look who's here!'," Wiles says. "I had no idea that this guy would watch the show. That's a pretty big compliment."

Perhaps now that Monday Night Football has finished its season, Third Watch will get the attention it deserves from its network: a little juggling on NBC's part couldn't hurt. For instance, with ER now entering its eighth season and showing its age, why not, to borrow a baseball term, go to the bullpen for Third Watch and switch the show's time-slots?

Surprisingly, that idea suits Wells - who serves as executive producer on both shows - just fine. "I'd certainly love them to try it for a little while, in March or something, and see what we can do," he says.

Are you listening NBC?