I caught the premier of “Cane” on CBS starring Jimmy Smits. The show was hyped relentlessly by CBS and to a certain extent it lived up to it’s expectations.

At first this seemed like “Dallas 2007″ with the Ewing brothers…I mean Duque brothers fighting for control of the family business. But then a big surprise happened for me. Alex Vega ordered a hit.

I though it was kind of cool, not that I endorse hits, but maybe Cane will evolve into a gritty primetime version of “Scarface”.

The Duques own a large sugar and rum company in Florida. The head of the family is Pancho Duque. Jimmy Smits plays Alex Vega, an “adopted” of Pancho. Pancho also has a natural born son in the family business, Frank Duque.

In the premier episode the Duques are approached by a rival company to buy the Duque sugar fields so the Duque’s can “focus on the business of making rum”.

Pancho seem intrigued by the idea. However the clever Jimmy Smits finds out that the government is about release legislation that will allow companies to produce ethanol from oil.

That when Jimmy realizes why the Samuels wanted to purchase the Duque sugar fields.

Sugar is the new oil ! Kaching !

Cane debuted to a 7.5 rating which is about 12 million viewers. Those number aren’t too shabby but they’re no Americal Idol