Many people first became aware of actor Jimmy Smits when he co-starred back on NBC’s LA Law in the 1990s. He’s worked on many TV shows since then — The West Wing, Cane, NYPD Blue — with varying levels of success. Now, he’s back in the courtroom again, playing a lawyer on NBC’s Outlaw. How will this new series work out for him? A big success or a quick cancellation?
Outlaw follows a Supreme Court Justice (Smits) who decides to step down and go back to being a lawyer to fight injustices. The NBC series also stars Carly Pope, David Ramsey, Jesse Bradford, and Ellen Woglom.
NBC gave Outlaw a special preview on Wednesday September 15th, in the plum spot of following the season finale of America’s Got Talent. The series premiere was reasonably sampled with a 2.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 10.68 million viewers. Those are okay numbers on their own but it’s not a good sign that Outlaw lost a significant amount of America’s Got Talent’s lead-in audience — 42% in the demo and 35% of total viewers.
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A couple days later, in its regular Friday night timeslot on the 17th, NBC reran the pilot episode. Outlaw performed terribly but, after all, it was a repeat. The rerun attracted just a 0.9 in the demo and 3.93 million viewers. The NBC execs were surely hoping originals would perform better.
Not so much. This past Friday, episode two of Outlaw only mustered a 1.1 rating in the all-important demo ratings and 4.99 million viewers (per the overnights). It was in last place in both categories and lost a large percentage of its lead-in audience from Dateline. Last year, an episode of The Jay Leno Show even did better with a 1.6 and 5.79 million.
With ratings like these, it’s hard to imagine that NBC would bother ordering more episodes beyond the initial 13 installments. They may in fact decide to pull the show altogether and plug in repeats of another series. It looks like it’ll soon be back to the drawing board for Mr. Smits.
What do you think? Did you watch Outlaw? Do you like it? Is it worth saving or should it just be cancelled?
Image courtesy NBC.
loved the show and love anything jimmy smits does. what a shame
we love outlaw where are your heads nbc..don’t disapoint us bring it bvack and get rid of crap there is plenty of it!!!
LOVE IT!!! Change the night!
I Loved the show. I DVR’ed it when I was not home to watch it. It is one of the best shows going for the new season. I keep thing they will continue it, but so far I cannot it.
This is an awesome show! What is wrong with you NBC! Keep the show!
Maybe it should be changed to a different night, like Sunday as there is NOTHING!!!! on that night to watch
I have enjoyed watching Outlaw, especially when it was on Fridays, there was always not much to see on Friday nights. I like Jimmy Smits, & the whole base of this series, but it never fails when I start to enjoy a series it gets cancelled.
Outlaw is a smartly written, well acted drama. It’s topics have great social value. What a nice change to watch a series that makes us think and starts conversations about current controversial issues. I hope it returns!
Why did you cancel Outlaw? We finally get a good intelligent drama to watch and you cancel it – what is wrong with you people!!!!!!
keep the show and give it a better time slot!!!!
Save — Save– Save– I love this show. Jimmy Smits does an outstanding job and the
show deserves to be shown the entire season and then some.
KEEP THE SHOW!!
It had a bad timeslot and it is a more intelligent show and a different twist. I can agree to tone done the womanizer / gambling aspect of the character, but it’s very entertaining and covers interesting topics.
I loved the show & I loved Jimmy back in action.
I will always be a BIG fan of Jimmy Smits and anything he does. Some of us are really tired of the Really Bad Dancing and repetitive Talent Shows with judges!!!!! Dateline is
also same oh same oh!!! I also like Tom Selleck and these days why can’t people just watch one and tape the other—-I also watch The Good Wife–but there are some really lame characters on there with the few really good ones??
Not sure wha the answer is but think any show deserves better than canceled on the 3rd week??
This was a totally unrealistic show.
A supreme court justice with a serious gambling addiction? Remember these guys are vetted out the ying yang.
A young sexy female “investigator” who seems to be more experienced than those around her.
This show was worse than Shark, and that was bad.
And Smits just floats thru.
So look at “The Good Wife” and tell me why NBC can’t duplicate that. Why, good writing and realistic dialogue.
On Outlaw they were always sucking back on Beers and fighting.
“Totally unrealistic”. Wake up!