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.
Just finished watching the two seasons on Netflix. I am a fan of The Good Wife so I started watching because it was recomended to me and I LOVED IT!!! Hard to believe TNT didn’t give it more promo time as this was the first time haring of the series. Love the cast, writing and story lines. What a shame it only lasted two seasons 🙁
My wife and I watched the entire series on Netflix and loved it. Never heard of it on TNT. It seems that cable has a problem since it doesn’t get to everyone, however, with all the PAP (American Idol, Big Brother, Dog, the Bounty Hunter, and the myriad of reality shows) on TV today I cannot believe that a show as well done as “Raising the Bar” was cancelled after only two seasons. The cast was fabulous, the stories fresh and the issues timely. Oh yeah, I guess it was too sophisticated for America’s viewing audience, bring on reruns of… Read more »
My husband and I are watching on Netflix.. and believe me they missed the ball with this series.. it is excellent.. and yet they leave junk on.. come on now..get real….maybe if you pumped up the series more people would have gotten into it.. There are still so many stories left to tell here.. bring it back.. and what a cast, fantastic. I wish another network would get it going again so we can have some real TV back on again..so disappointed that it is over.
I LOVE this show. The acting and writing are so much better than anything I’ve seen for a while. I, too, watched on Netflix and was shocked and deeply disappointed to read that it was canceled after only two seasons. I hope TNT will give it another go. This show has a lot of heart. It ended WAY too soon.
I think it was TNT fault they didn’t promote the show enough. Raising the Bar was a top quality show. SHAME ON TNT
I bought both seasons on DVD and couldn’t wait to get back to watch it each time.
Excellent drama
I was very disappointed there were only 2 seasons.
I found this site looking to see if there is a season 3. Too bad there wasn’t one ………..and a season 4, 5 and 6……….
This is by far the best drama I’ve seen out there. I was captivated from beginning to end of all 25 episodes. Another fine example of an excellent show being cancelled. Last time I was this disappointed was then FOX cancelled Firefly– a series which suffered the same awkwardness for the first couple episodes in the first season, but then developed into something remarkable. Then, a good movie is only 2 hours long if you are lucky… there’s 25 episodes of Raising the Bar – 19 hours. Thank you TNT for those unforgettable 19 hours.
Started watching this series last week on netflix have been glued since the 1st episode, I’m a little mad I didnt find this show earlier. Had no idea it was on TNT, or that the station was still around to be honest. I thought it was a new show 🙁
Was watching this show from a Netflix recommendation and felt for it, did a marathon and watched the two seasons non-stop. Disappointed it was cancelled, Didn’t even know it was on TNT.
I’m very disappointed this show was cancelled. It was recommended to me on Netflix after watching the 1st season of defenders. I’m about 5 episodes from finishing it out and thought I’d try to locate season 3 ahead of time…guess I’m out of luck. I’m at least happy to see that there are other people who are also sad to see this show gone. Maybe in another life…
great show, great acting, would love to see more
p.s. i too loved it
One of the many reasons why you lose rating is because people have to work and are not at home to watch it. Some people have to wait till it comes out on dvd, or Netflix, or the library. Or some who missed a couple of episodes, and wait for it to come out (dvd, ect..) so they dont go out of order. or you watch one episode in the middle, like it, and wait for it to come out, so you can watch it from the begining.
I’ve been watching this series on Netflix, and I’m glued to it on every episode. It’s totally hard to believe it was cancelled after season two. The dynamics were fantastic, and I completely forget where I am while I’m watching. I really can’t understand how a series like this is not watched and loved by millions of people. And I don’t understand why there wouldn’t be a lot of protests when it was announced it was cancelled – unless there were.
This is the best series I have seen in a long time. It had me glued to the TV. It is great acting and there is a great chemistry between the characters. It ranks better than Good Wife. Please get these people back and get it on the local TV channels. People w/o cable, DirectTV or ComCast like myself who now can’t afford that luxury will be craving this kind of intellectual and mind-challenging type of TV drama. I was great. You have already waited too long and the public yearns for really good dramas.