Court will soon be adjourned for the Mark-Paul Gosselaar drama, Raising the Bar. TNT has decided to cancel the series after two seasons but, there may still be more to come.
From executive producer Steven Bochco, Raising the Bar revolves around a group of law school classmates who work on opposite sides of the courtroom. The drama’s cast includes Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben, Currie Graham, Melissa Sagemiller, J. August Richards, Jonathan Scarfe, Teddy Sears, Jane Kaczmarek, Stacy Hall, Natalia Cigliuti, Paul Joyner, Wayne Lopez, Jon Polito, and Angel Oguendo.
Back on September 1, 2008, the series premiere attracted 7.7 million viewers. That set a record for TNT as the biggest audience for a new series launch on regular cable. Unfortunately, much of the audience didn’t return for later episodes which averaged 5.5 million. Despite an early decline, TNT renewed the series for a second season.
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On June 8th, season two of Raising the Bar attracted just 3.6 million and shed half of the audience of its lead-in, The Closer.
As a result of the low ratings, the cable channel has cancelled the legal drama. Via a statement, a TNT representative said, “Everyone at TNT had a great experience working on Raising the Bar with Steven Bochco and the rest of the show’s terrific cast and crew. We’re proud of the series and appreciate the efforts of all of the creative people who were involved. Unfortunately, ratings for Raising the Bar’s second season did not reach the levels required for TNT to renew the series.”
TNT had opted to split the second season into two parts. The first dozen episodes finished airing on August 24th. That leaves three episodes on the shelf. It was expected that they would air in early 2010 but they haven’t been given airdates yet.
What do you think? Are you upset that the series has been cancelled? Why do you think that Raising the Bar failed — acting, storylines, or something else?
Image courtesy TNT.
I loved this show, and I’m upset they cancelled. It was one of the better shows on tv. It gives you something to hope for in television especially since reality tv seems to be the new thing these days. BRING IT BACK PLEASE!!!!
I also happened to find Seasons 1 & 2 on Netflix, and enjoyed them very much! I am disappointed to learn that that was the end of the show. : – (
This show was great!!! Happened to find season 1 and season 2 complete on Netflix…wish it could go on forever!!! The cast probably has other jobs by now, but I LOVED every minute of every episode. Couldn’t quit watching. (Especially with no commercials) HAHAHAHA
Maybe the network didn’t advertise enough. It’s been years since the show was cancelled and it still has a following; although it’s limitted to Netflix because it’s not even being aired on other channels as re-runs. In the meantime there are programs that aren’t worth watching that are on the air. Network executes have big salaries, big cars, definitely big egos but tiny little brains. It is obvious that there is an audience for this show, if they were smart they would bring it back and promote it the right way. Network executes resemble politicians, completely out of touch with… Read more »
Plz!! Come on this show MUST Get back!! I never enjoyed a show like this one before! Great story wonderful cast! You got to be kidding me! I need another season!
please bring this back it’s amazing cast with an amazing realistic story line .
I’ve been waiting till this January for the return of this show. When it didn’t come back and we get shows like Rizzoli & Isles (blah, blah, blah), it show that people aren’t really making good decisions. This show was compelling and you were always left wondering who was going to win. You would be rooting for both the prosecution and the defense, and it portrays real life and situations. Bring it back!
I agree with the other commenters on this post. This was a quality show, that dealt with real life issues, in a real way–the prosecution didn’t win all the time, the public defenders didn’t win all the time–it showed that friendship can endure in the most painful and difficult of life’s circumstances.
Besides, anyone but me wonder where the ratings data comes from? I’ve been asked once in my lifetime about what I watch. I’ll bet if they created a channel where we could pay ala cart for our programs, people would pick hands-down, Raising the Bar
Maybe this show shouldn’t be on TNT!!!!!
I love the show raising the bar, You need to bring it back, maybe on another network. and who was the big dummy that cancelled the original Law and Order.
Looks like the replacement show was a duddddddddddddddd. Way to go dummies
Raising The Bar was by one, of the better shows on television, period! The cast was incredible, the cases were amazing, and the balance between personal and professional lives is what made it so damn great! I sincerely hope that TNT would reconsider their decision on RTB.
Ok TNT, home of great programing, you are getting an earful on “Raising The Bar”and deservedly so ! That show was really close to reality. Great cast, great story line and bam! Down the drain it goes. If you could bring it back, it would show you are appealing to your higher intellect viewers. We know good TV when we see it. You have a hit with “Men of a Certain Age” (my current favorite) and I will not list all the rest except to say that RTB would round out your schedule perfectly.
This show was great and very realistic which is something other shows are missing.
You should bring it back
This is one show that needs to be brought back…….Very good show, with a great cast. Take off some of the worthless reality shows and start showing quality tv shows.
You need to re-visit the idea of bringing this show back. Put it on another night that doesn’t compete with ‘The Closer”. It was an excellent show and deserves another chance.
competing? they’re on the same network
not happy about it – this was a really good show and cast